A Whole Twelve Months
by Der Blaue Wolf
Summary: While Byakuya is on a business trip, Rukia is staying with Ichigo, while both are trying to come to terms with their feelings for each other, and someone is interfering with the Kurosakis, in a violent way. AU. IchiRuki
1. Chapter 1

A/N Okay, okay, I said I'd finish Moonbeams and then publish my other ToS, but I feel like writing something different, so here is my offering. I'll still try to update them both each weekend if possible, but please be sympathetic if I can't.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, the Manga/Anime or the cleaning product.

A Whole Twelve Months Ch1: Goodbye Bya-kun

Why did her brother have to leave for a year? It was so annoying. 'Byakuya and his damn buisness trip,' Rukia thought to herself as she sat by he desk finishing her homework.

Rukia was not particularly happy. Her brother was leaving her by herself for an entire year because of the family buisness. That was not strictly true to be fair: he had entrusted her to the family doctor and his family, but that still did nothing to lighten her mood, mainly because of Dr Kurosaki's complete dullness. There was only one glimmer of rather orange light in the dark tunnel the eternally scowling son of the Kurosaki family Ichigo. They had known each other since they were both four, and somehow managed not to kill each other in the following 12 years, making a very strong bond between them. Their mutual friends at school often made bets on whether or not the two would 'get together' over the course of the term. So far, those in favour of their union had lost out a great deal.

'Like Strawberry and I are going to go out with each other. I've never heard of anything so ridiculous,' was what she had been saying for most of the last six years, since the first bets were placed, but since the beggining of this school year, her hormones had kicked into overdrive. She was getting to the point of worrying about what clothes to wear whenever she saw him, to make sure she looked her very best whenever he was around. The cold logical part of her mind spent a lot of time telling her she was being stupid, but she still wished it was Ichigo she cuddled in bed, not her Chappy doll (and from her that was saying a lot).

'And know I get to spend a whole 12 months with him, at school and at home, well his home anyway, I do hope he _really_ likes me.' At this point, she realised just how girlly she was being and did her best to snap out of it. 'Bad Rukia, you can fantasise about boys **AFTER **you've done you're homework.' She sighed and got on with it. She could think about him all she wanted tomorrow when Bya-kun was gone and she would be staying with Ichigo for that whole year.

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Ichigo lay back on his bed, thinking about everything that was going on in his life. 'Have to do that homework, Rukia's coming tomorrow, have to ask Dad where he hid my favorate top, Rukia's coming tomorrow, need to ask Yuzu to make a nice dinner for tomorrow, as Rukia's coming tomorrow.'

Ichigo sat up suddenly, his scowl in place. 'Damn, why can't I stop thinking about Miss Midget, it's getting annoying.' 'Yeah right,' said a voice in the back of his head, 'you just keep thinking about her because of what you wanna do to her.'

'Hey, that's not true!'

'Oh yes it is, you wanna kiss her, hug her, seduce her, get het in your bed and then...'

'Shuddup, that has nothing to do with this.'

'So you don't deny it?'

'Why you, just piss of!'

'How can I when I'm a part of you?'

'Argh, SHUT UP!'

Ichigo could not believe he was having an argument with himself. Okay he did like Rukia, but that did not mean...

'But you do, don't you.'

'So what? She is the closest person to me, and I am allowed to have hormones aren't I?'

'Awwww young _Lust_.'

Ichigo growled, this argument was going to take a while.

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Rukia woke up. Today was the day, Byakuya was leaving, and she was going to Ichigo's. She got up, and while dressing she thought of the orange hair. While heading downstairs she thought of him and when she entered the kitchen, she did not even notice Byakuya until he spoke to her, "Good morning."

She was startled out of her daydream, in which Ichigo was carrying her t his bed, by this sudden noise. She turned and returned the greeting.

Byakuya, as usual said very little. "We will be leaving in an hour. I will drop you at Kurosaki's on my way." He then stood and left.

'He seems cheery this morning, as always,' was all Rukia thought before returning to her daydream.

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Ichigo stood outside his house, awaiting the imminant arrival of his friend. He had lost the argument last night, admitting to himself exactly what he wanted to do to Rukia. At this thought, his trousers twitched.

Suddenly, Byakuya's car pulled up outside the house, and he saw the object of his thoughts get out. "Hey Rukia."

"Hi," she called back, before pulling her bags out the boot. Byakuya wound down the window.

"Goodbye Rukia."

"Bye Bya-kun."

"And Kurosaki," Byakuya turned his attention to the boy, "look after her, or else."

Byakuya did not finish his threat but drove away. 'Or else' from him was enough. He was the sort of man who, if he told you to jump, you would ask how high, and if he told you to hang yourself, you find the nearest rope. The 'else' in his sentance was dying in some rather unfortunate manner.

Rukia watched her brother drive away and smiled. She then dumped her bags into Ichigo's arms.

"God, did you bring you house in here or something?"

Rukia smirked, "Only the essentials, I am here for a year."

"Great," Ichigo replied. "I have to put up with you for a whole twelve months."

A/N That is the begining, please review, or else I'll have Byakuya visit your house on his trip. Mwhahahahaha.

Bis Bald

BW


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Just a some points of note. 1st thanks to my reviewers, 3 in a day is not bad going for a new story. 2nd I have cosen to move Ichigo's birthday from the manga/anime date of June 15th to September 15th, so that Ichigo is slightly older than Rukia. I just like it better that way, and if I left it and he was older, they would have to be in diferent school years. 3rd because of this, Ichigo is 17 at the moment, not 16 like Rukia. Now, onwards and upwards...

A Whole 12 Months Ch2: Day 1

_November, 12 months to go_

Ichigo led the way into his house, carrying most of Rukia's lugage, while Rukia herself followed, carrying only a handbag. She had not been into the house very often, as Ichigo never liked to meet her there, apparently something to do with his family.

Suddenly she saw Ichigo, on his way into the living room after dumping her stuff by the door, fall over with a large footprint on his face. She ran to him and knelt by down to see if he was okay.

"Ichigo, are you hurt?"

Ichigo ignored her and jumped up, then ran into the living room shouting, "YOU BASTARD, I'LL KILL YOU FOR THAT!"

Rukia moved to the door and looked in to see Ichigo punching the living (or so she hoped) daylights out of Dr Kurosaki.

Isshin kicked up and knocked his son off him and laughed, "Hehe, you're still too slow!"

Ichigo would have continued, but he saw Rukia at the door, with a look of terror on her face. He walked over to her and shook her lightly. She looked at him, clearly dazed by what had just happened: she was amazed that Dr Kurosaki would attack his own son, her precious Ichigo. That was when she shook herself out of her train of thought, 'he's not _mine _he's just a friend, for the moment at least.

Ichigo smiled at her, "Welcome to the madhouse."

She smiled back, and turned to take the room in more thoroughly. It was not huge, but it was big enough to fit about six people comfortably. There was a sofa in the middle of it, facing a TV, and on the sofa were two girls, one with light brown hair, who was smiling at her so widely, Rukia was afraid her head would break into two, and the other with black hair and a lesser version of Ichigo's scowl on her face. There were also a couple of large armchairs, and on one of them sat a woman, who looked like an exact replica of the younger girl, only about 25 years older.

'Ichigo's family, strange, I've never met them before, except for his father, and he never acted this... interestingly.'

Ichigo spoke up, "Rukia, these are my sisters, Yuzu and Karin," he pointed to each in turn, "and this is my mother Masaki."

Masaki smiled at Rukia, "Welcome, Ichigo has told us a lot about you."

Rukia bowed, "Thank you Mrs Kurosaki for letting me stay for such a long time."

"Please, call me Masaki. It's nothing: one of Ichigo's closest friends needs a place to say, and I'd be damned if I didn't give my help."

Ichigo smiled, the two were getting on very well already, but that was his mother for you: ready to help anyone at the drop of a hat.

His thoughts were unpleasantly interrupted by one of Isshin's usual outbursts, "Oh Rukia it's a pleasure to let you stay, now it's like we have three daughters, or maybe a daughter-in-law."

At this point Ichigo wanted nothing more than to break his father's head open, but he forced himself to stay calm and not start a second fight within 5 minutes of Rukia's entry. Rukia herself was currently the colour of a tomato, partly wondering if her feelings were that obvious, and partly from being reminded about her daydream from earlier that day.

Masaki noticed the colour of Rukia's face, and suggested that she went and unpacked and that Ichigo show her up. After persuading (with various methods of physical torture) Isshin that his presence was unnecessary, Ichigo carried Rukia's bags upstairs. He stoped outside a door and somehow opened it without putting the bags down. "Here we are."

Rukia entered, and smilled. The room, though fairly small, she imeadiately liked it. It had light cream-coloured walls with a Chappy patern on, probably from when Yuzu was younger. It also had a double bed with a Chappy duvet cover, and Chappy pillow. Everywhere she looked there was so much Chappy. She was overjoyed, while Ichigo stood back and groaned. "When I mentioned that you liked Chappy Dad and Yuzu went overboard, actually I said you were a Chappy-obssesed freak of a midget, but that's a technical term."

Rukia was too excited to bother slapping Ichigo, she dived onto the bed and snuggled between the sheets. She heard Ichigo drop her bags and leave, muttering "Hopeless" on the way out, but that didn't matter, as she somehow fell asleep within a minute.

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Rukia stirred, she opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Ichigo standing by her bed, topless. She blushed a bit at his fine, well built chest, but controlled herself and managed to call out "Strawberry."

Ichigo moved closer, and sat on the bed, slowly his mouth moved closer to hers, "Rukia...Rukia."

His words were getting louder, "RUKIA... WAKE UP."

Then she woke up and realised what had happened: 'A bloody dream.'

She looked at the fully dressed Ichigo before her, "What is it?"

"Dinner, so come down quickly." He left.

She sat up and groaned, then pulled herself out of bed, while her logical mind threw in the towel, 'Oh great so you're having dreams about him now, oh great, this makes it official.' She gulped and muttered to herself, "I love Ichigo Kurosaki."

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A/N Nope, they are not getting in each others' beds on day 1, that would be too much too quickly.

Please review.

Bis Bald

BW


	3. Chapter 3

A Whole Twelve Months Ch3, Monday

_November, 12 months to go_

It was a Monday. Nobody likes Mondays, because of what they entail: school, work and the idiots that come with them. On this relatively normal Monday morning, Ichigo would be scowling at the mirror, and preparing himself for the usual catastrophe that was school. Keigo would try to jump him, Tatsuki and Yoruichi would be arguing about who had the better girlfriend, while Orihime and Soi tried to stop them from killing each other, 'Shiro would be ignoring everyone except for Momo, who he fancied like Hell, but he had not got the courage together to tell her, and Renji would be trying to get Rukia's attention anyway possible: a normal day at School with the gang.

At the thought of Renji trying to flirt with Rukia, Ichigo got a bit angry. He was not sure why, 'It's not like we're a couple...' He blushed at the thought, 'I don't fancy the midget, I don't fancy the midget I don't fancy the midget, but she is very cute, I don't fancy the cute midget, I don't fancy the cute midget, and she is rather pretty, I don't fancy the cute, pretty midget, I don't fancy the cute, pretty midget.' He gave up at this point, and brushed his teeth.

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Rukia was getting dressed into her uniform. She was also, as normal, fantasising about Ichigo. Ever since she had admitted to herself that she loved him, she had spent all her alone time thinking about him. She ran through some of her previous fantasies and smiled: if even one came true, she would be the luckiest girl on Earth.

She finished changing and headed downstairs. She entered the kitchen to get herself some breakfast. She was happily munching away on some cornflakes, having another, rather dirty daydream, when the subject of it came into the room. He grabbed a bowl and filled it, then sat across from Rukia. She glanced at him, and felt her heart skip a beat. The logical part of her brain was shouting something at her, but the little girl part had locked it away in the deepest recesses of her mind. Right now, she was just going to concentrate on the man sitting across from her.

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The two teenagers were walking to school in silence. After a weekend of constant contact, they had very little to say to each other. Rukia was going over the weekend, at least everything that had involved a certain guy with orange hair. 'Look Rukia, can you not stop thinking about him for three seconds?' She tried, she failed. She remembered them discussing Ichigo's family: apparently Dr. Kurosaki's behaviour was normal, for him, and it had only been Byakuya's murderous threats that had kept him under control around Rukia when she went for a check-up.

Ichigo was trying his hardest to stop thinking about the girl next to him, while one part of his brain was trying to remind him of what he had said he wanted to do to said girl.

'I don't fancy her.'

'Yes you do, you love her, or is it just lust? That's it: you just want a good fuck don't you?'

'No, it's not like that.'

'Then what is it like? Well? I'm still waiting for an answer.'

'Look, I don't know exactly how I feel, okay? So just leave me alone for now, so that I can get my head round it.'

'Suit yourself, but remember to go get some condoms before you...'

'Shut up!'

Ichigo now of course was reminded of what he wanted to do to Rukia, making his trousers twitch like mad. 'Down boy please,' he tried thinking of anything, so it would go down before Rukia noticed: 'Hurricane, flood, murder, blood, Dad.' At the last thought, the bulge suddenly disappeared. 'Thank God.'

Rukia was by this point back at the point in her fantasy at which she was being held tight in Ichigo's arms. She had not seen the bulge, and would not have taken any notice if she had.

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"ICHIGO!"

'Smack'

Keigo lay on the floor by the classroom, with an imprint of Ichigo's arm on his face. "Morning," Rukia and Ichigo said simultaneously, before walking in. The room was as chaotic as ever: in the centre Yoruichi and Tatsuki had broken free of their girlfriends, and were having what one might call a 'bitch fight' while Soi Fon and Orihime stood back. Ichigo glanced at Renji, and they went to help. Eventually, they pulled the combatants apart.

"Lemme go Ichigo, that purple haired bitch said my Orihime wasn't as beautiful as that cow she dates."

"Say that again Arisawa and you're dead meat."

Soi looked rather upset, first because she had just been called a 'cow,' and second because she did not like to see Yoruichi fighting. When Yoruichi noticed this, she immediately changed her behaviour, "Oh Soi, are you okay darling? Please Renji, can I go to my Soi." Renji let her go and then she went straight to try to cheer Soi up. Ichigo released Tatsuki, who went to Orihime and went in the other direction.

"They'll never learn," Rukia said, appearing next to Ichigo.

"Ah, Rukia, you're looking especially beautiful this morning," Renji started.

"You mean you don't think she looks this good all the time?" Ichigo asked with a smirk.

"It's none of your business what I think Kurosaki."

"Well seeing as she is my oldest friend, I think you'll find it does concern me who's flirting with her."

Renji's face seemed to be having a competition with his hair as to the shade of red. "Who said I was flirting, I can complement her can't I?"

"Please guys, don't fight over me, attractive as I am," Rukia interrupted, before they started to kill each other.

Renji made a noise that sounded like 'Fine' and left. Ichigo looked at Rukia, "Why'd you stop us, that was getting fun."

Rukia smiled, "Much as I appreciate your care for me, I'd rather not have two of my friends kill each other, at least not in front of the entire class so that my best friend gets arrested after kicking a redhead's arse."

Ichigo smiled, and would have replied, if it were not for the cry of "Look."

It was Rangiku pointing outside. Everyone rushed to the window, and saw what had grabbed her attention. Several "Awwwwwww"s were heard, and money was handed over from bets. What they saw was Toshiro Hitsugaya and Momo Hinamori kissing. Rukia smiled, "Awwww that's so cute."

Ichigo laughed, "Yeah, I agree, and now Renji owes me a tenner."

Yes, it was a Monday, but not quite as normal as everyone expected.

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A/N: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, I just felt like putting the last bit in for the sake of it. This is a rather pointless chapter, but I needed to get all the basic stuff about their school lives out the way, and now it's done. Thanks to reviewers, this story already has half as many as Moonbeams, so I think it gets priority.

Bis Bald

BW


	4. Chapter 4

A Whole 12 Months, Ch4 Plain Plans

_December, 11 months to go_

It was two weeks since Rukia had moved in with the Kurosaki family, and it was the beginning of December. Life had been simple for those last couple of weeks: she would get up in the mornings, get dressed and ready for school, fantasise about Ichigo for a while, go and get some breakfast, argue with Ichigo over breakfast, grab lunch and leave with Ichigo, still with them both arguing. Yet despite the amount they argued, they never, even for a second felt any real resentment towards each other, only towards the poor sods who tried to stop their arguments, as a result Isshin was missing a few teeth. They would argue about everything and anything: Rukia's Chappy obsession, Ichigo's hair, the chances of Toshiro not screwing up his new relationship, whether strawberries beat oranges, anything.

Considering the frequency of their arguments, and the fact that they were still friends, many people had decided that bets against their union were a bad idea, and so, after 6 years of 'will they, won't they'ing on the part of everyone, the general consensus was, 'they will.' The only two people who were not sure about this were the couple themselves.

Rukia was pondering her relationship with Ichigo, as she had for about eight hours a day, every day, for the last two weeks. She was sitting alone on the Chappy bed. 'Even Chappy can't make me feel better now, urrgh, why does it have to be so damn complicated? I love him, can't he just turn around and say that he feels the same, I'm sure he must, but what if he doesn't, that would be awful.' She was clearly not in the best of moods.

She stood up, there was no use doing nothing all day, that would not solve anything. It was a Sunday, and she had done her homework, and had nothing else she needed to do, she had to find something, or she would go mad. She eventually went to her laptop and turned it on. 'A few million pages, there must be _something_ I want to do on there.' She ended up checking her emails for the 50th time that weekend. 'Someone must have been nicer to me than the last 49 times, please oh please.' The only one she had recieved was from Tatsuki, asking whether Rukia thought Orihime or 'that Chinese cow slut' was more beautiful, which Rukia had deleted. She disliked Tatsuki's name calling: it genuinly hurt Soi, and Yoruichi never called Orihime any names, except when she was very angry, she might lose control enough to call her 'that Inoue girl,' but then again, Yoruichi always had been a calm girl when it came to arguing.

Rukia clicked on the 'mail' button and saw a lone new email in her inbox. She read the name: 'Bya-kun.' Why would her brother be emailing her? She opened it. It read:

**Rukia,**

**I wanted to check you are well, and that Dr Kurosaki's family are taking good care of you. Also, I wanted to ask after your friend Ichigo: he has always struck me as a bright boy, and I am glad that you have such a close friend in him. Please reply quickly, or if you do not then I will asume that the Kurosakis have chained you up somewhere in their house and will not release you, so I would be forced to send a hitman to rescue you.**

**Byakuya**

Rukia madly dashed off a reply, knowing Byakuya may well be telling the truth, you could never tell with him. 'So much for taking my mind off Ichigo.'

She loged off and decided to watch some anime: seeing people having trouble with their lives often helped to relieve the stress of her own. She found the next episode off _Death Note _and started watching. 'Light can be such a bastard, using Misa's feelings for his own gain, if anyone tried that on me...' she had found her way back to Ichigo and her mindless love. 'God, does everything have to come back to him? Is he that central to my life?' She knew the answer to both questions was 'Yes,' but that did not help. 'Oh, Ichigo! Why am I always so damn girly at the thought of you.'

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Ichigo came out of the bathroom. He had just had a shower, but thoughts of Rukia had driven him to extreme methods. 'But it still was not enough to stop me wanting her really badly, however much pleasure you can get from that, I am sure that Rukia could give me more.'

He stopped at the entrance to his room and looked down the corridor at _her_ bedroom door. 'God, I bet she's in there right now, I wish I could just go in and fuck her, no I shouldn't be thinking that, I should not just want to have sex, that would be wrong, just doing it for the sake of it. But do I love her? I dunno, this feeling could be love, but it could be something else. I don't want to hurt her ever, I certainly care about her that much, and if he found out Byakuya would kill me. Oh shit, what should I do?'

He just stood there looking at the door, wishing that he had the courage to go and tell her how he felt he needed her, but was scared of what might be his real motivation. Then an idea came into his head, 'Maybe, just maybe, if I do it right.'

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Rukia was back on the bed, waiting for something to get her out of her thoughts about Ichigo. 'I love him, but does he love me, oh I hope he does. Stop being so girly. But I like getting all girly over Ichigo. Well you shouldn't. Well shut up.' She was arguing with herself again. She looked at her calender, only two more weeks of school, hooray! Then on the 23rd there would be a big Christmas party at Yoruichi's home, while her parents were away. Rukia and Ichigo were both going. 'Ichigo...hey, that's it.' She had an idea.

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Ichigo checked his calendar, 'So I have until the 23rd, good, everything should go fine, And I'll have a chance to work out exactly how I feel by then.' He grinned, unaware that Rukia was pulling a simillar expression next door.

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A/N: anyone who can guess what the plan is, okay it has been done a million times before, but hey, it works. For those who have not seen Death Note, you should, it is currently fighting Bleach for top spot on my 'favourate anime' list. Thank you all reviewers. My emails not been recieving the messages from this site since the last chapter, I don't know what's going on, but it had better start working again soon, so I can recieve all thos lovely reviews etc you give me. I will try to get two more chapters in before Christmas, so watch this space.

Bis Bald

BW


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Woohoo! Nearly Christmas :). Ahem. Well yes it is, but that does mean people tend to be inactive for a week or two, which can be a pain. I've decided to put everything I had for two chapters into this one, so until after the New Year probably, this is my final contribution. I may put something up before that, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

A Whole Twelve Months Ch5, It's nearly Christmas!

_December,11 months to go_

Rukia left the Shihoin home. She had just organised the final part in her plan, and had checked that everything was as ready as could be. This would be one hell of a party for her and a certain orange-haired young man.

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Ichigo got off the phone to Soi Fon. He had just organised the final part of his plan, and had checked that everything was as ready as could be. This would be one hell of a party for him and a certain midget.

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Yoruichi walked over to Soi, who had just put down the telephone. Soi had been staying with the Shihoins ever since her own parents had tried to force her into a marriage, at only 16 years old.

"Well Soi, Rukia wanted that balcony kept free, and she gave us some stuff to hang up."

"That's strange, because Ichigo was on the phone just now, and he asked for that balcony, and that we hang some stuff up."

Yoruichi raised an eyebrow, "Are they doing what I think their doing?"

"I think you may have thought right. Was the principle object..."

"Mistletoe!" they said in unison.

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Ichigo was standing by the bottom of the stairs, waiting for a certain midget to come down. She had gone to get ready a good hour ago, and if she did not hurry they would be late. He was wearing a black tux, which he was not especially pleased with. He had only worn it under threat of murder from Rukia and Yoruichi, and he really did not want to miss this party under any circumstances.

He heard a sound from upstairs, and saw the aforementioned midget walking gracefully down the stairs, or at least, as gracefully as possible in her shoes, which was not very. She had on a red, strapless dress, and Ichigo thought he could see a little make-up here and there, especially over a little scar she had, from falling of a swing when they were six. All in all, he could only find one way to describe her.

"Beautiful."

Rukia smiled at his comment, she had spent that long, only to look good for him, and if he approved then she did not care what anyone else thought, she did everything for him these days.

She took his hand, and they were about to leave when Masaki stopped them. "I'd just like a photograph, if you two don't mind. I just want one photograph of my son his best friend together all dressed up."

They stood together in the living room, as Isshin was dragged away by Karin for trying to join in the photograph, and Masaki held the camera up. "Smile, no _smile, _don't scowl Ichigo."

Ichigo smiled and the flash went off. "Well we'll be off now Mum, we won't be back 'til late, so see you tomorrow."

Ichigo led Rukia out of the house, and they walked quickly to Yoruichi's house. It was a little cold, and snow was expected soon, but they paid little attention to the weather. They were only thinking about the evening ahead of them.

They arrived. They entered, they chatted with friends. They did all the usual things, but neither of them was paying much attention to what they were doing, they were just thinking about each other.

Rukia was having a conversation with Orihime and Tatsuki, who had somehow been invited, or else had just come anyway, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and saw Ichigo. "Um Rukia, can I talk to you about something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Uh, could we go somewhere a bit quieter?"

"Sure." Rukia was nervous, this could be the perfect opportunity to say what she had to, but she was still a little scared of saying it.

Ichigo led the way upstairs, away from where everyone else was, and Rukia noticed they were heading towards the balcony she had asked Yoruichi to keep free. When Ichigo went to it, she thought that fate could not have given her a better lot.

The balcony was not huge, but it was large enough to have a bench, big enough for them both to sit down. It also had a glass roof of sorts, to protect from rain, whil the sides were open to the air. They sat, and Rukia looked at Ichigo expectantly.

"Rukia, first, I want to give you something." He reached into a pocket, and pulled out a box. It was long and flat. He handed it to Rukia. "Open it."

She did, and was startled. A necklace, of silver chain with a sapphire pendant lay in the box. She looked at Ichigo, startled by the gift.

He laughed at the supprised expression on her face. "Don't look so shocked, I tried to get one as beautiful as you, but that was a little difficult, so I got the best one I could."

She was still a little supprised but she took the necklace and put it on, then she looked up at him again, and smiled. "Thank you Ichigo, and you know what? I have something for you." She pulled out, from God knows where, a larger box. "Here," she gave it to him. He opened it, and staring back at him was a photograph from his last birthday with a beautiful frame. It was from when the two of them had gone to the park in the the afternoon. They had run into Tatsuki and Orihime, and the former had taken a picture of Ichigo and Rukia by the lake.

Ichigo smiled at the picture. "I always wondered what happened to that." He turned to face Rukia, "Well I have to hand it to you: you gave me something far more beautiful than I gave you. Mine didn't have a picture of you anywhere."

Rukia laughed, she was happy, just being with him made her happy. "Rukia, there's something else."

Rukia looked at him quizzically, waiting for what was to come.

"Rukia, I... I love you."

Rukia was, to put it mildly, surprised to have him be the one to tell her. She overcame her shock to reply "Ichigo, do you mean it?"

"Yes, I love you Rukia."

Rukia flung her arms around him, overjoyed. "Ichigo, I love you too."

Ichigo felt the girl's tight embrace, and heard her reply. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. He had the girl he loved in his arms, everything was good in his life now.

The two loosened their grips on each each other, and just sat looking at each other. Ichigo glanced up, and Rukia followed his gaze. Mistletoe. They looked back at each other, and they lent forward, into a long and passionate kiss.

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

Yoruichi snuck away from her hiding place, having watched the entire scene. She went to her microphone in the centre of the stage, and waited for the band to finish their song, before beginning her announcement.

"Everybody, I have some information for the betting offices. We have a new relationship between Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki. That means that Renji, you own me and Soi fifty quid each, so come and cough up. That's all."

People started handing over money, the losers annoyed, and the winners preparing to spend their new money, but overall, a feeling of goodwill towards the new couple was present.

Then the couple in question were seen coming down the stairs, and everyone began to whisper. Momo and Rangiku went up to the couple.

"Oh Rukia, what a pretty necklace!" Momo half screamed.

"It was a present from my handsom new boyfriend."

"So it's true!"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at Rangiku's statement "What do you mean 'It's true'?"

Rangiku answered straight, "Yoruichi said that..."

Ichigo's face had cut her off mid-sentance. "She was spying wasn't she?"

"What? We thought you'd told her or something, she announced it to everyone," Momo replied.

"What? B-but she did what?" Rukia was startled. Then she looked to Ichigo, who looked angrier than she had ever seen him. "Ichigo, calm down, She shouldn't have told everyone about it, but it saves us some time."

Ichigo still looked rather angry, but calmed himself as much as possible, so as not to go and rip off Yoruichi's head in front off Rukia. He turned to her and heard the song playing finish. The next one began. "Rukia, want to dance?"

She nodded her assent, and Ichigo led her on to the dance floor. They started to dance together. It was some love song or other, the two did not really care. All they cared about was each other. They danced through the song, and two more after that. Before Rukia pulled herself closer to Ichigo. "Ichigo I need you."

He understood. They slipped away from the crowd of dancers, and up the stairs. They slipped into a guest bedroom. They both knew that they could just leave tomorrow with all the people with hangovers. Nobody was likely to notice.

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

LEMON ALERT if you don't like it, skip to the next one of these:

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Rukia sat on the bed, and Ichigo sat next to her. "Rukia, are you sure?"

"Yes, Ichigo, I'm sure."

They kissed again, as Ichigo threw off his jacket. Rukia's hands moved to his shirt and began to undo the buttons. Ichigo reached down to pull Rukia's dress off from the bottom. Soon, there was nothing protecting Rukia from the air except for two thin pieces of material.

Rukia lay back on the bed as Ichigo removed his trousers. Rukia felt the warmth of Ichigo's body come against hers, as he came over her. He bent down and kissed Rukia. His kisses moved down from her lips, down her neck, down her collar to the top of the first piece of offending material. He tore it off to reveal two small mounds. He laid a kiss on each and started to mould them with his hands. Rukia gasped a little.

Rukia had never felt as much pleasure as this. But she was in for a great amount more. She felt something against her lower lips. She looked to see that Ichigo had removed his boxers. She blushed slightly at what had been concealed. Ichigo's right hand at her breast was replaced by his mouth. The hand went down to remove that last scrap of material.

Rukia felt the air on her lower lips. "Ichigo, please, do it."

Ichigo looked up at her. He moved his mouth to her lips and kissed her. He poised himself, to enter her. He thrust in, and Rukia screamed out. "Ichigo."

Ichigo stopped and looked at her. She looked at him and stammered out, "Just... a second... need time... get used to it." Ichigo waited until her breathing retuned to normal, then she spoke again, "I'm ready."

Ichigo needed no more encouragement. He thrust in and out, building up a rhythm, with Rukia gasping at every thrust. The gasps got louder, until she orgasmed and screemed "Ichigo!" Her tightening made Ichigo release as well. He thrust until he could no more, then colapsed next to Rukia.

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

The next morning, Rukia woke up to find Ichigo in the bed next to her, she smiled remembering the last night. She smiled and shook Ichigo awake. "Ichigo, it's time to get up, we need to get going, your family will be wondering where we are."

Ichigo sat staight up, "Oh SHIT, what will Dad think?"

"The truth," Rukia replied, simply.

"Hmmm, ah well. At least I have my beautiful girlfriend with me the whole time." He kissed her, and she kissed back. "Rukia, I love you more than anything else."

"And I love you too, Ichigo."

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

A/N Ah, my first Lemon. Quite a long chapter in all: my atonement for the break I'm about to take. Reviews are always very good to have. So Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy New Year.

Bis Bald

BW


	6. Chapter 6

I decided that I wanted to get on with this story, so here's my next offering.

A Whole 12 Months Ch6

_December, 11 months to go._

Rukia began to stir. It was the 27th of December, and over the four nights since they had started going out, Rukia and Ichigo had not had huge amounts of sleep. Christmas had been interesting to say the least, with Isshin's comments about their sexual activity, but that hardly mattered any more. All she cared about now was the younge man next to her.

Rukia sat up and rubbed her eyes, she was in Ichigo's bed, and the man himself was in the bed next to her. She got up and started to dress herself. As she pulled her jumper on, she heard a noise from the bed. She turned to see Ichigo sitting up with a smile on his face.

"Morning Strawberry."

"Morning Midget."

Rukia sighed, "How many times must I give you strict orders NOT to call me 'Midget'?"

"I'll stop when you stop calling me 'Strawberry'."

"Okay Strawbs."

Ichigo growled, "Fine Midge."

"Let's give up on this for the moment," Rukia said, as she finished pulling on her jeans. "See you downstairs."

Rukia left, smiling. She seemed to be in a constant state of smiling, ever since that party. The last few days had been like a dream, or at least she was sure she must have drept about a sleepless night with Ichigo at some point. Regardless, she had enjoyed every minute of her time with Ichigo, he was very good at what he did.

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

Ichigo finished getting dressed and headed for the door. He had, after much careful thought, worked out his exact feelings for Rukia, and the result was interesting to say the least. He loved her more than anything else, he loved her enough that, despite all his father's annoying comments over Christmas, a word from her was enough to stop him from ripping said annoying father's head off. 'Love really does work wonders.'

His fears about wanting her just for sex were quenched some time ago, and now hespent every minute of her company in sheer bliss. He glanced at the picture on his table, the picture Rukia had given him. He smiled, she really was beautiful.

He hurried downstairs, so as to get back to the object of his affections as soon as possible.

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"That Goddam bastard."

Ikkaku rubbed his ears: being friends with Renji meant he was used to his rages, but that made little difference to the state his ears were in. Renji had asked Ikkaku and Yumichika to the park to discuss "Something important."

Ikkaku glared at his friend, "Look, we know you liked her, but now she isn't fair game anymore, she hasn't been since that party. Now give it up, we all signed that agreement, and you know what happens if we break it."

"I don't give a FUCK about that bloody 'Shihoin Agreement' he is a complete git who stole my Rukia."

"She isn't yours, she's Ichigo's," Yumichika interupted.

"And besides, you signed the agreement, unless you want something bad to happen, you should just give up now."

The 'Shihoin Agreement' was held in high respect among their class. Name after a classmate of that name it was an agreement stating that nobody would passively or actively do anything to damage or cause problems to arise in a relationship between any of the class. It had origionally been planed to protect Soi Fon after she had run away from home to be with Yoruichi, but had ended up being extended to everyone. There were three written copies, one of which Yoruichi held, but the other two's location was unknown. Anyone who broke it would regret it.

Renji thought for a moment. "I'll do it, but in a way that nobody'll know it was me, then I'll get _my _Rukia all to myself."

"If you try anything, then we won't help you," Ikkaku said, glaring at Renji.

"Then I'll just do it without you." Renji left his friends. The two stood and let him leave without a word.

"If he does anything stupid..." Ikkaku began.

"...Then we'll have to help the others through it," Yumichika finished.

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It was 11 o'clock at night, and Ichigo lay in his bed with Rukia's sleeping head lain upon his chest. He was smilling as he always did when he was with her these days. He looked at her. She seemed so innocent and even more beautiful than normal while she slept. He knew what he wanted, to spend the rest of his life with her. He did not even mind his father's comments about them. The only thing he was worried about was Byakuya's reaction to them being together. Right now though, he did not really care.

He sighed contentedly and pulled her closer to him. He had her now and never wanted to let her go. "I love you Rukia, and I'll do my best never to let you get hurt."

He lay his head down and fell asleep, but not before he heard a little voice saying, "Ichigo, I love you too."

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Renji was sitting at his table at home, trying to come up with a way to split Rukia and Ichigo up, without there being any chance of him being discovered. It was difficult to say the least. 'Looks like I'll have to go with plan A, it's not like I've got any other plans at all.'

He went to bed at last, with a grin on his face. 'Payback time.'

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Ikkaku was talking on the phone, "Okay, good, so if anything happens I can deppend on your help... No don't tell them just yet, we don't want Ichigo to kill Renji even if he doesn't plan anything... Right, bye Toshiro."

He hung up the phone. He needed all the help he could get, because although he would not help Renji, that did not mean that there was nobody else with a grudge against Ichigo, who might help Renji. 'I hope this all comes out okay... or else..."

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A/N: YAY. One more chapter down the drain. Yes it was a slightly odd one, but it's to get the plot going. Please REVIEW, not just favourate, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASEPLEASE .

Ahem, anyway. My birthday soon, in 3 days. 

Bis Bald,

BW


	7. Chapter 7

A Whole 12 Months, Ch7 Sleep and Phoning

_January, 10 months to go._

Ichigo woke up and immediately wished he had not. He had realised what day it was, and now he wanted to go straight back to sleep, but he knew that RUkia would wake him up again when she woke. He turned to look at Rukia. He did not want to, but he had to wake her up. He shook her lightly. "Rukia, wake up."

She slowly started to stir, "What is it?" She asked grumpily.

"You've got to get up, remember, school starts again today."

She groaned, but pulled herself up. Ichigo laughed at her pouting face. "Would a good morning kiss help?"

"Maybe, you'd better try it," Rukia replied. Ichigo leaned closer.

"GOOD MORNING ICHIGOOOOOO!"

The couple were startled and Rukia quickly had to pull the duvet up to cover her chest which was still very much on display before the interruption occurred. At present the interruption was having various objects thrown at him by Ichigo.

"GET OUT OF MY... _OUR_ BEDROOM YOU PERVERTED OLD MAN," Ichigo shouted, correcting himself at a tap from Rukia.

"Well I just wanted to check you weren't still trying to make me a grandson, important as that is, you still need to go to school," Isshin replied, ducking an alarm clock and running from the room.

Ichigo was fuming, and Rukia was blushing. Ichigo got out of the bed and move to shut the door. "You know Ichy, you really ought to lock that door."

"It wouldn't help, he'd just come in through the window, and if we locked it then he would just stare through," Ichigo said, picking up a table lamp.

"Draw the curtains then."

"I would, if I weren't sure that he bug the room if he couldn't find another way to spy on us." Rukia laughed. "I'm being serious, he'll keep spying on us until you get pregnant, then he'll be so excited that he'll forget to spy."

"Well I don't think that that's a viable method of stopping him right now, I'd prefer to finish school before we start a family."

"But if you did end up pregnant then what would you do?"

"Freak out is pretty high on my list, now let's stop talking about 'what ifs' and get ready for school."

"Fine, but we don't exactly have to hurry, we've got an hour before we need to go."

"Hmmm... and it only takes us half an hour to get ready..." Rukia looked up at a smirking Ichigo, "You thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"Half an hour long enough to do it?"

Rukia smiled. "Probably," she said and Ichigo slipped back into the bed.

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Rukia and Ichigo dashed through the school gates. Half an hour had not been quite long enough and they were late. As they ran they were still bickering.

"Well we would have been okay, if you hadn't been teasing me for so long," Rukia complained to Ichigo.

"You liked it at the time, all you were doing was lying on your back saying 'More Ichy, ohhhhh... Ichigo" Ichigo replied, using a high squeeky voice for the imitation, as they entered the school building.

'SLAP.'

"Next time, cut the imitations and I'll not have to hit you," Rukia smirked at Ichigo.

"Ow, Rukia, you didn't _have_ to hit me, I'll make it up to you."

"Good, that means a fun night ahead." The two of them had reached their classroom. As Ichigo reached to open the door, he heard a noise from down the corridor. He turned to look.

"ICHIGO!"

'SMACK.'

'THUD.'

"Morning Keigo." Ichigo and Rukia said in unison as they entered their classroom.

"Morning," Keigo replied weakly.

As the couple stepped in, Rangiku and Momo ran up to them.

"Hey guys, how've ya been?" Rangiku asked.

"Fine, apart from Ichy's stupidity, everything's been going just fine."

Ichigo glared at Rukia, "Oh and of course little Miss Kuchiki has been just perfectly behaved the whole time," he retorted.

"Of course I did, now be good Ichy, or else I might not be in a very good mood tonight."

Ichigo would have retorted, had his hormones not quickly stopped him from doing anything to spoil any chance of a fun night. Still grumbling, he went to sit down and vent his rage in some other way. Toshiro who was in the seat to Ichigo's left laughed at the stern face he had on. Laughing from Toshiro was so rare that Ichigo forgot his anger with surprise. "What's so hilarious, has Momo been making you more cheerful or something."

"As a matter of fact, yes, but I was laughing at your face."

Ichigo shook his head gravely. "Love really can change a person, I've never seen you laugh at anything apart from Momo's jokes before, now you laugh at me for getting annoyed."

"Well I would have thought you'd be pleased that I'd stopped being so condescending and quiet."

"I would be, if you hadn't become some sort of giggling imbecile."

"Oh really? Well at least _I _haven't fallen out with my girl yet."

"And what makes you say I've fallen out with Rukia?"

"Your face."

Ichigo could not argue with this, and so returned to his grumbling. Toshiro smirked, but lost interest when he noticed Keigo eyeing up Momo and went to deal with the pervert.

"Ichy."

Ichigo looked up at his girlfriend. "Yeah."

"You okay?" She asked, sitting in her seat on her seat to Ichigo's right.

"Just about."

"Sorry if I was a bit harsh earlier, I don't think you've done anything stupid at all since you asked me out, well except perhaps not checking if anyone was watching, but apart from that you've been wonderful."

"Are you just saying this soppy stuff to make me feel better?"

"Yes."

"At least you're honest, blunt, but honest."

"And you wouldn't have me any other way, would you?"

"Of course not."

As this was going on, a certain red haired teenager was watching and getting more pissed off by the second. 'Bloody Kurosaki, how I hate his guts for taking _my _Rukia, but I'll get him, and then I'll get her." He still wasn't exactly sure what to do about them: so far, all he could think of was spreading the usual rumors, that Ichigo was sleeping with about 3 other girls and that sort of thing, there was only one other way to remove his opponent, and Renji did not want to murder Kurosaki, however much he might hate him. The trouble with rumors was that they would stay as just those, rumors, and besides that, the new couple spent almost all their time together, so even if Ichigo had wanted to cheat, it would have been almost impossible for him to manage it.

Renji fumed more and more, then he had an idea, what would _he _think of the relationship, if _he _found out, Ichigo would be dead very quickly. 'Get ready Kurosaki, 'cause there is one man who can split you up forever, I think I'll call him tonight.

'BEEP BEEP.'

Everyone groaned as the bell rang, and they all hurried to their seats. Just as the last person sat down, Mr. Ukitake walked in. "Good morning class."

Everyone stood* "Good morning sir."

"Sit down."

Everyone sat, and the usual proceedure continued. 'Another boring day,' thought Rukia but then remembered who she was next to, 'Perhaps not so boring.'

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Ichigo waited at the school gates to walk home with Rukia, but as they had different classes last period, she hadn't been let out yet. **Although they both did English language and Literature, he did Chemistry and Biology as he wanted to become a doctor like his father, but also wanted to become a doctor unlike his father, while Rukia did Art and History, because she liked them, which was reasonable enough Ichigo thought, especially seeing as he was going to be in a pretty well paid job himself if things went according to plan, so she would be at home to look after the family they wanted to have. Ichigo could hardly wait for all that, but knew that he would have to. But that didn't matter to him at the moment.

He smiled for the umpteenth time that day, when he saw Rukia walking towards him. She looked up and saw him, "Hey Ichy."

"Hi Rukia, ready to go home?"

"Yeah."

"Then we can have some fun," Ichigo smirked.

"Ichy, is that _all _you thin about?"

"Well... it is quite enjoyable with you."

"Okay, okay, let's go home now."

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Renji was on the telephone back at his apartment, "I need to speak to him, it's private and concerns his sister."

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then Renji heard the voice of the man he wanted to speak to, "What is it Mr. Aberai?"

"Well, as I said, it 's about your sister Mr. Kuchiki..."

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*In many British schools, pupils are expected to stand when a teacher enters as amark of respect.

** In England the final two years at secondary school (ages 16-18) you choose 3 or 4 subjects to study.

So, I am doing well with this at the moment, mainly because I quite like this story. My birthday tomorrow, HOORAY! But don't expect any updates until the New Year, there will seriously not be any for a while, as I'm having friends to stay so I'll be busy. Anyway, I hope that I get a huge number of those lovely reviews that you all LOVE to give me, don't you?

Bis Bald

BW


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I'm back again, and here's my offering to make up for lost time. This chapter will be... interesting, I hope. Happy new year everybody.

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch8

_January, 10 months to go._

"ICHIGOOO."

'Smack.'

'Crash.'

"Morning Keigo."

"Morning."

Ichigo and Rukia walked into the classroom, as usual ignoring Keigo on the floor. It was Friday at last. Their first week had been fairly normal: Ikkaku was still picking random fights, Rangiku was still not hiding her ample... gifts, Tatsuki had still not learnt to moderate her language, so Soi was still going round looking rather hurt, Toushiro was still hanging off everyone of Momo's words and Ichigo and Rukia were still together, despite their many arguements, which Yoruichi had once said was their form of "bonding," and then went on to start describing how she bonded with Soi, until the latter's face was so red it was blinding everyone.

Yes, a normal week, well almost. There was something unusual, Renji was acting weirdly. Whenever Ichigo or Rukia saw him, he would glare at them and quickly leave the area. The couple themselves did not have a clue why he was doing this, no the truth is they did not care, let him act oddly, it did not matter to them, and they could hardly help him, as Renji did his best to avoid them.

Today, when they entered the classroom, there was something else unusual going on. A crowd had gathered around Toushiro and Momo and all the girls were smiling and talking to Momo, while all the guys were laughing at Toushiro, who looked as if he were about ready to comit various bloody murders. Rukia walked up to where Orihime was standing with Tatsuki, "What's going on?"

"Oh, well a certain something happened between these two at that Christmas party, and Momo is, well, not to put too fine a point on it..." Tatsuki began.

"For Goodness sake stop putting off saying it, she's pregnant!" Orihime finished for her girlfriend.

Rukia raised an eyebrow, it was a suprise to say the least. She had known Momo for years and had not expected her to be in this situation, but then again, it could very well have been her, Rukia who was... Then Rukia thought of something, 'Oh shit!' She looked at Ichigo, and he looked back at her. In each other's eyes they saw the same message, roughly translating to 'Fuck no...'

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

Rukia and Ichigo walked down the street, holding hands and wondering if what they thought would turn out to be two walked up to the house, and Ichigo rang the bell and stepped aside. But there was no cry of "ICHIGOOOO," no man sailing past the couple. Ichigo saw, opening the door the one person he least expected, and, bar his father, least wanted to see, Byakuya Kuchiki.

The man stared at the teenager, while Ichigo and Rukia tried to work out what was going on. Byakuya turned his gaze to Rukia and spoke, "Good afternoon Rukia."

"Brother, what are you doing here? I thought that you weren't due back for another ten months."

"I was passing through, and wanted to check on you, " Byakuya said, stepping back to allow the teenagers to enter.

The three of them went into the living room and sat, Ichigo and Rukia on the sofa, while Byakuya took an armchair. Byakuya spoke again "So Rukia, how has school been?"

"Um... alright I suppose, not too bad."

"And, how are all your friends?"

"They're all okay."

Now Byakuya turned to Ichigo, "And how are you doing Ichigo? I can see you have been taking good care of Rukia."

"I'm okay, but of course I'd take care of Rukia, I _am_ her oldest friend."

"And her closest?"

"Well yes I guess."

"How close?"

Ichigo and Rukia were slightly startled by this, but more startled by what happened next. Byakuya laughed. It was a genuine, though small laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. Then Byakuya smiled a little, "You do not need to explain it, I am already aware of your relationship."

"Who told you?" Rukia asked, slightly supprised by Byakuya's actions.

"I received a phone call from a fellow student, Abarai I think his name was, and he informed me of it, when I expressed no dissaproval of your relationship, he seemed a little... put out shall we say?"

"Renji, I bet I know exactly why he did it, he wanted you to break us up so that he would have a chance with Rukia. That bastard is going to pay for this," Ichigo half shouted.

"Ichy calm down, please don't do anything stupid."

"Ichigo," Byakuya spoke up, "If this boy does anything to hurt your relationship or either of you, then I will have him dealt with, understood? But for now leave him be, as I refuse to let my sister marry a murderer."

Ichigo looked back at Byakuya, "Why exactly are you being so supportive of us? I didn't think you'd like me and Rukia being together."

"I have my reasons, and I may tell you in time... but not just yet. There is a time and a place for everything." Byakuya rose, "Now I must leave. I will come and see you again if I can. I must say, I cannot wait to be an uncle."

Byakuya turned and left the room. Ichigo and Rukia exchanged worried looks. "Do you think he knows about _that _too?" Rukia asked.

"I dunno, anyway we need to make sure first. There are some tests in the clinic that you can use." He stood up and went to the kitchen. Rukia just sat where she was for a few moments, thinking about what this could all mean.

"Rukia," Ichigo called, I need to go shoping, we're low on food. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Bye," she called back.

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

'Another ten minutes and I'll know,' Rukia was pacing the bedroom she and Ichigo shared. She could not wait, but hoped Ichigo would come back in time to see the result. He had been gone for a good hour now.

She sat and waited and kept checking the clock. 'Eight minutes 43, eight 21, seven 57, seven 40." She kept on and on checking. Finally it was time. She looked at the three tests she had, they all said the same thing.

Then she heard a comotion downstairs and Karin burst into the room, "Quick Rukia, you gotta come, Ichigo's in hospital, he's been attacked."

o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

Uh oh, poor Ichigo, and poor Rukia. Hehe, now is she pregnant or not? I could be doing what everyone else does and mae her so, but...

Anyway, reviews always nice remember, and thanks to those who have reviewed already.

Bis Bald

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	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Sorry about the delay, I've been busy, and when I've been free, I generally just feel like watching anime, not like writing.

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch 9: Happy Birthday?

_January: 10 months to go_

Rukia should have been happy, it was now her birthday. But there was something, no someone, missing. She walked into the hospital, and slowly made her way to the room she had been to hundreds of times, or so it seemed to her, it had in fact been only been six. She sat in the chair she had sat in each and every time she had come. In the bed, just the same as every other time, lay Ichigo. She looked forlornly at him, longing for him to wake up, and for the men responsible for this to be caught.

_--Flashback--_

_Rukia and the Kurosaki family had just arrived, several of Rukia's friends were already there. "Where is he?" Rukia asked, trembling._

_"He's in there," Toushiro pointed to a door, "but you can't go in."_

_"Why not?"_

_"He's in a very bad condition, the bastards who do this were very thorough, it's a miracle he's still alive."_

_"Have they been caught."_

_Toushiro bit his lip and looked away. Rukia was horrified, then she noticed something for the first time: many of the others, including Toushiro, looked badly beaten up. Toushiro had a broken arm, Ikkaku had bandages round his left hand and Tatsuki had her leg in plaster. Rukia then remembered something Karin had mentioned while telling her what had happened, that while those three bastards had been beating Ichigo up, some of the others had run into them and gone to help. Evidently, they had not come away unscathed._

_"Does anyone even know why they did it?"_

_Toushiro looked up at her again, "Well my father's in the police, and he mentioned a group that just might fit, under some circumstances."_

_"Who, what circumstances?" nearly everyone asked.  
_

_"If it was them, this was not just some random attack, and they meant to kill him from the start. They call themselves the 'Arrancar,' though they are mostly just a bunch of thugs who go around killing for money. However, they are believed to be mostly under the employ of three businessmen, of course, this has never been proved. The main problem is next to nobody wants Ichigo dead, and any that do wouldn't have the money to pay the Arrancar, their 'services' are believed to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, and the cheapest job they've ever been known to do was £80,000 (about $100,000-120,000)."_

_"So why? Why would they hurt Ichy? Why? Why? WHY?" Rukia cried, her voice getting louder with every word, she felt as if her whole life was collapsing around her, just because some rich bastard disliked her boyfriend. She looked around madly until her eyes settled on something, the words 'red pineapple.' "You."_

_Renji noticed her glare and guessed what she was thinking. "Rukia I didn't, how can you think that of me?"_

_"You BASTARD, YOU, you're the one that tried to take my Ichy away from me, got someone to kill him, then you show up here, you're the one aren't you?"_

_"Rukia, how could I? I don't have that kind of money."_

_"You did it somehow, I know it." Rukia leaped at him, but before she could hit him, two people grabbed her and held her back._

_"Rukia, calm down, he couldn't have done it," came from her right, it was Yoruichi. On her other side was Rangiku._

_"Let me go, even if it weren't him, he still tried to get us broken up by telling my brother."_

_Everyone turned to Renji, who looked guiltily at the floor. The redhead then looked to the girls holding Rukia back, "Let her go, I deserve it."_

_The moment she was free, Rukia leaped at Renji. Soon afterwards, Rukia fell to the ground exhausted, and Renji fell to the ground, wondering about the state of his bones._

_--end-Flashback--_

Rukia thought again over everything. After calming down, she had realised that it couldn't have been Renji, but he still deserved everything he had got. She looked at the orange-haired man lying on the bed. He had survived the attack, just, but had been in a coma ever since. Rukia could not stand this, the way she would wake up every morning by herself, as she went to school there was no arguing, through all her lessons, there was an empty desk next to her, and then after school, she would come here and see him still lying there.

Today had been particularlly bad. Her birthday, and she could not enjoy a second of it. For 12 years he had been all her birthday partys, and now he could not be there, there was not even going to be a party, nobody could party with Ichigo in hospital, they just did not have the heart to do it.

Rukia reached out to his lifeless hand, and squeezed it. "Ichy, you need to wake up, everyone's worried about you, I am, your sisters are, your dad's been crying the whole week, the guys at school are, even Renji's worried." She leaned over and kissed him. "So Ichy, get up soon," she stood and walked to the door, then stopped and turned to him again, "Get up, for your friends, for your familly for, me, and..." she smiled, "and for the baby..."

She left, and walked out of the hospital. She clambered into Isshin's car. He turned to her, "How is he?" Even Isshin had been acting more sensibly.

"Same as always."

Isshin turned to start driving. "I suppose I ought to say 'Happy Birthday.'"

Rukia turned away from him, "Nothing will be happy, until he comes back..."

-----

A/N:For the moment, that's all folks, and don't worry, things'll get happier next chapter.

Bis Bald.

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	10. Chapter 10

A/N Hello, I come bearing a chapter. Thanks to reviewers, and some more wouldn't hurt, _hint hint._ Without further ado, here's chapter 10.

A Whole Twelve Months, Chapter 10, Wake up Call

_February, 9 Months to go._

Rukia sat by Ichigo's bed again. It had been nearly a month since the attack, and Ichigo was still not awake. 'How much longer must I bear this torment? It's so painful, I need him with me, but he's stuck in this bed, he can't be with me.' Rukia was almost glad that the men responsible had not been caught: if they had, she would probably have killed them for what they did.

She was sick of being alone all the time, sick of not having anyone to hug in bed, sick of not having the chance to argue about anything and everything, sick of not having the man she loved by her side.

-----

Ichigo walked across the open ground, wondering where he was. He was dress in a black kimono, he had no idea why, he had no idea what he was doing, or where he was going, he just kept on walking. There was something heavy on his back, he looked at it. A sword, wrapped in bandages was somehow held on his back. Ichigo did not feel surprise, it was almost like it belonged there.

He turned to look in front of him again, there was a man, with brown hair, dressed in a similar kimono, with a white cloak over his back. Ichigo had never seen this man before, but knew who he was "Aizen."

"So Kurosaki, you've come at last have you? I expected you sooner."

Ichigo grabbed his sword, shouting "I don't have time for idle chat, I'm here to kill you, and nothing more!"

Aizen drew his own sword, "Very well."

Ichigo swung his sword forward, "BAN-KAI"

-----

Rukia watched the man and then noticed something, his face, which before had been blank, was back in his trademark scowl. Then she heard something she did not expect, "R-rukia."

Instantly Rukia was at Ichigo's side, "Ichy! can you hear me Ichy? Please wake up! PLEASE!"

She heard snickering, the man was actually laughing. "Rukia, you don't need to shout, I'm already awake," then his eyes shot open.

To say that Rukia was happy would be an understatement, and as it is difficult to put into words what she was thinking, I shall limit these writings to what she did: threw her arms around Ichigo, holding him tightly, and kissed him again and again.

"Hey there, not wasting any time are you?"

Rukia looked him in the eye and pouted, "Well if you don't want it..."

"When did I say that?" Ichigo asked, before pulling her into another kiss. He was still confused by the dream he had just woken from, but right now, that coud wait, he had other things to deal with for the moment.

-----

Elsewhere in the town, a man sat at his desk reading papers. Across from him another man, with white hair and eyes that seemed to be always closed, stood waiting for the other to finish.

"Well Gin, this is certainly interesting, so you say that Grimmjow and the others failed in their simple task?"

"Apparently the boy's friends found them, and they couldn't fight all of them off."

"Well, well, he certainly was lucky, they almost succeeded in killing him. Those friends will prove a nuisance."

"Why exactly, do you want rid of him in particular? Surely it is his father who you really hate?"

"Gin, I want his father to suffer, that is far better than killing him. And that boy reminds me of what I lost."

"Well, surely you could have his sisters removed instead, it would be much easier."

"No, I have something else planned for them."

Gin smiled, knowing full well that his boss was planning something interesting, and that he would be the one to carry out the operation. 'This could turn out quite well for me.'

-----

"ICHIGO!"

Ichigo cringed as his father, Yuzu, and several of his friends pounced ran into his room at the hospital. Toushiro, Ikkaku, Karin, his mother and Tatsuki walked in after the others, with mixed expressions.

"How are you Ichigo? Have you finally decided to come back to you family after leaving us alone for so _long_?" Isshin asked, half crying, grabbing Ichigo for a hug.

"Get off me, or else I'll run away with Rukia and leave you forever!" Ichigo shouted, throwing his father across the room.

"Good to see you're so much better," Karin calmly commented, watching as their father flew into the opposite wall.

Rukia was siting in the chair next to Ichigo's bed, still amazed by everything that was going on, oblivious to Isshin's cries of pain. Ichigo looked at her and put his hand on her's. She looked up, and he smiled at her. She smiled back. It was a brief moment, but it meant a lot to Rukia, 'He's back with us, and soon he'll be back at home with me.' She was happy, everyone was happy, and now it would stay like that, she hoped, forever.

-----

A/N: Sorry for the delay, I've been very busy lately. This chapter is, I admit, a touch short, but I wanted to move on at least a little, and after various threats, I thought I shouldn't keep you guys waiting. 30 reviews, come on guys keep it up.

Bis Bald

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	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hello everybody! I have a new chapter for everyone. Here goes:

_Disclaimer: _I forget if I've already put one of these, regardless, I don't own Bleach, I just play with the characters.

A Whole 12 Months, Ch11, What I Have Missed

_February, 9 Months to go._

"Ichy, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Rukia, you don't have to worry so much."

Ichigo was still in his hospital room, and he still had to stay in bed. Rukia had just arrived to see him and had sat in her usual chair by his bed.

"But you were unconsious for so long, and I'm worried in case anything else happens."

Ichigo sighed, Rukia had been fussing a lot in the last few days since he had woken up. It was kind of her to be worried, but it was getting to the point of frustrating. Rukia never acted at all like this normally, it just showed how much she cared about Ichigo.

"Look, Rukia," Ichigo said taking her hand in his own, "I am going to be fine, the doctor said that in a couple of days I should be able to go home. In the meantime, there is one thing I need help with."

"What's that?"

"That," Ichigo said, pointing with his free hand to a pile of books on a table opposite the bed. "I am miles behind in my studies, and I really need to catch up."

Rukia looked at the pile, it was certainly not what one would call 'small.' Ichigo had been absent from school for three weeks now, and he really did need to make up for lost time. "Okay then," she said walking over to the pile and taking an English book from the top, "Let's get started."

-----

Rukia was walking home after spending the last few hours with Ichigo. She was happy that he was awake, but there was still something on her mind:

_--Flashback--_

_'Another ten minutes and I'll know,' Rukia was pacing the bedroom she and Ichigo shared. She could not wait, but hoped Ichigo would come back in time to see the result. He had been gone for a good hour now._

_She sat and waited and kept checking the clock. 'Eight minutes 43, eight 21, seven 57, seven 40." She kept on and on checking. Finally it was time. She looked at the three tests she had, they all said the same thing. 'Positive.' Now she knew she was pregnant, and she was shocked, though not as shocked as by what happened next.  
_

_She heard a comotion downstairs and Karin burst into the room, "Quick Rukia, you gotta come, Ichigo's in hospital, he's been attacked."_

_--End-Flashback--_

She had to tell Ichigo soon, but she was having trouble with it: he was still in a bad state, and this news might be too much for him at the moment. She walked down the road leading to the Kurosakis' house and turned to walk up to the house. She let herself in and walked into the living room. She sat on the sofa and turned on the TV. She sat flicking through the channels for a while, still thinking about how to tell Ichigo, 'He might expect it, and we did talk about it, but still, I'm scared.

Her thoughts were interupted when the door creaked open, and in walked Masaki. Ichigo's mother smiled at Rukia and went to sit next to her. "Evening Rukia, How was Ichigo?"

"O-oh, um, he was okay," Rukia replied weakly.

"Is something wrong?"

Rukia looked down at her feet, "It's about the baby, you know I haven't told Ichy yet, well I'm scared about his reaction when I do tell him."

"You shouldn't be, you know Ichigo will take it okay, he already thinks you might be, and if he did take it badly then Isshin would lock him out of the house," Masaki smiled, "He loves you, so you don't need to worry about anything, he might be surprised, but he'll manage, I'm sure."

"I know, but I can't help but worry, I'm 17 and pregnant, of course I'm going to worry about how the father is going to act."

"If he does anything stupid then I'll set Isshin on him, so don't worry, even Ichigo doesn't want to be attacked by a paternally enraged Isshin, that has to be the scariest thing in existance, bar a very moody Ichigo."

The two of them laughed at the thought of what might happen between the father and son. "Well I don't want this baby to turn out like _that_," said Rukia, "Those two are enough work as it is."

"I agree, but there will be a certain amount of similarity of character between them, unfortunate as that may be."

"They are both insane, but we love them inspite of it."

"Too true."

"Well, I had better prepare to tell Ichigo, I just hope he takes it well."

"I'm sure he will."

-----

_Somewhere in one of the less reputable parts of town_

"So what you're saying, is that we've gotta go and get them, and bring them back to the boss, with the option of killing that orange-head en route," and man with blue hair asked Gin.

"In a manner of speaking."

Another person came forward and spoke in a complete monotone, "May I ask, why does Aizen want this trash?"

"Even I don't know that, but these are his orders, so get to it."

The blue haired man nodded, "Sure, so when was it he wanted it done exactly?"

"Give it a few months, and should you encounter that daughter-in-law, make sure that she is brought as well just to... increase the pain."

-----

A/N: nothing to say, except PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!

Bis Bald

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	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Ugh, running out of ideas here people. I'm always a spontanious person, but spontenaity only gets you so far. Here's my attempt at another chapter. Here we go...

A Whole 12 Months, Ch 12: Time to Tell

_March, 8 months to go._

Ichigo walked through the front door to his house, glad to be back on his feet and to be back home. Rukia came in after him, smiling as normal, "You're finally back Ichy!"

Ichigo turned to her and smiled back, "I know, it's good to be home."

His mother appeared from the living room, "It's good to see you back Ichigo, come in, I've just made lunch." With that she disappeared again.

Rukia was about to follow Masaki, when Ichigo put his hand on her shoulder to stop her. She turned to him, "What is it Ichy?"

He pulled her into his arms, "I just wanted to say thank you for being there for me the whole time while I was in the hospital," he said kissing the top of her head.

"That's okay, I wouldn't be any good as a girlfriend if I hadn't been there for you."

Ichigo pulled back to gaze into her eyes. "No, but you're a wonderful girlfriend."

Rukia was not sure, but when he said that, she thought his eyes flickered down towards her stomach area. Then he let go and walked towards the kitchen. Rukia gulped, she was still yet to tell him, 'But has he guessed the truth? Byakuya guessed about it, correctly as it turned out, or did someone 'spill the beans' as they say: what a stupid phrase.'

Rukia walked through to the kitchen, still pondering whether Ichigo knew or not. When she got there, Ichigo was already tucking into some rice. She smiled at this. 'Same old Strawberry.'

-----

Ichigo was back in that world again, the one where he had stood on that plain, by himself, with that sword on his back. This time, he was standing in front of that man Aizen again. He held a black katana in his hand, and his clothes seemed more... ragged almost.

Aizen drew his own sword, and spoke, "Why do you draw that blade?"

"To kill you," it was Ichigo's voice, yet it didn't feel like it was him was speaking. It felt like his body was under the control of another, and he was only an observer. Then the two men flew at each other.

'What's going on, where am I?'

"You see another plain," a voice said. Then Ichigo saw everything go black. He then saw a light appear far in front of him, getting slowly closer, then he heard the voice again, "You see the plain where you and your friends had to fight for your lives, it is a totally different world, yet some things remain constant."

Ichigo looked for the speaker, from the light a man came. The light was too strong for Ichigo to see his face, or his clothes, or anything. "Who are you?"

"Who am I? That is a good question. Even I do not know that for sure. I was once a human as you are, or a race that is very similar. But now... I am maybe just a part of your dream... But trust this, whatever I am, wherever you go, whichever plain you walk, some facts remain the same, eternally."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Who knows? I could for all you know be a figment of your imagination, yet soon you will understand this warning."

"What warning?"

"You still do not understand... some things never change..."

With that, the man and light were gone, and Ichigo awoke and opened his eyes. He had been dreaming... was that it? But it felt so real. He looked at Rukia sleeping softly next to him. 'What the hell was that about? What did that man mean?'

He stared up at the ceiling, until he could barely keep his eyes open. 'It was probably... just a dream...' His eyes closed and he fell back to sleep.

-----

"ICHIGO!"

'SMACK'

'THUD'

"Morning Keigo."

"M-morning you two."

Ichigo and Rukia walked into the classroom. Their lives were finally getting back on track, to a degree at least. Rukia was still terrified about what she had to tell her boyfriend, and Ichigo was still confused by his 'dreams.' To top everything off nicely, Yoruichi and Tatsuki were trying to rip each other's heads off again, while Renji and Toushiro tried to tear them apart. Okay, that was normal enough, but it did nothing to help anyone's situations. Ichigo sighed as he sat down in his seat, then when he saw Renji being thrown half-way across the room by an indignant Tatsuki, he decided that he had better help. Yes everything looked depressingly, and deceivingly normal.

'But it's not,' Rukia thought, she looked across to Momo. 'She must have been through this too, I wonder how she's coping with it herself... but at least she told Toushiro about her baby, I still don't have the guts to tell Ichigo.'

Rule 1 of life: it's a bitch.

-----

Rukia and Ichigo were walking home in silence. They were both thinking deeply. Ichigo glanced at his girlfriend, and noticed her depressed look. "Is something wrong Rukia?"

She looked up at him, "Uh... not exactly wrong, but I'm a little scared..."

"Of what?"

"Of how... you'll take what I have to tell you..."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "Well you'll never know unless you do tell me Rukia."

"Well, the thing is..." she looked into his eyes, they were full of love, and worry, 'I have to tell him, NOW.' "Ichigo, I'm pregnant."

He laughed, he actually laughed. "Was that what you were scared to tell me? I'd already guessed that you probably were."

'So he did guess, it's not that surprising I suppose.'

He continued, "As you didn't mention the results of you test, I assumed that you didn't feel ready to talk about it, so it was probably the case that you were pregnant."

"That follows how? I could just have forgotten to tell you if I weren't."

"Yeah, forgotten to tell me for about a month, that's believable."

Rukia blushed, "Okay, so what now?"

"Well we keep living, and when the baby comes, we live with him or her in our lives as well, it not complicated."

'Actually it's frick loads more complicated than that, but I'll let that slide.'

Ichigo held out his hand to her, "Shall we go now?"

Rukia took his hand, "Yeah, let's go."

-----

A/N: There you go. Thanks to reviewers, 40 total so far, and that's not bad at all. This spell check is rubbish: it doesn't recognise 'Katana' as a word.

Bis Bald

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	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Suffering severe writer's block with this story. HELP! Oh, and thanks for the reviews people. This is just to keep things rolling, as I can't think of much else to add yet.

A Whole 12 Months, Ch13: Bodyguards are so Annoying

_April, 7 months to go_

Rukia's stomach convulsed again, and she brought up what was left of the previous night's dinner into the toilet. She was still suffering the effects of 'That goddamn morning sickness,' as she usually put it. Ichigo passed her some more paper to wipe her mouth. He was very used to these morning interuptions of his sleep to stand by Rukia, holding her hair back, and passing her toilet paper. The fact that he was used to it did not make it any less annoying, but he tried to hide his annoyance, if only so that Rukia did not get angry at him. Her mood swings were not very common, but add hormones to a normal Rukia, and you get the scariest thing imaginable. Imagine a three headed dragon, which breathed fire, and had claws the length of greatswords, and was taller than a skyscraper. That would pale before Rukia in her worst moods.

Rukia raised her head out of the toilet, and stood up slowly. Ichigo stood ready to help her if she felt unwell. Needless to say, Rukia was not taking the pregnancyy very well. What was worse was that Byakuya had, upon hearing about it, sent a team of bodyguards to protect her from the same fate as Ichigo had suffered. 'Well at least it shows that he cares, though it sounds more like the sort of thing that Isshin would do.' She put two and two together and got four, at least she thought she did. The pregnancy wasn't exactly helping with rational thought, especially as it made random thoughts like 'Must eat soap' appear at odd intervals. What she did deduce though went as follows: 'Isshin would try to protect the baby with whatever he had, Byakuya has a hell of a lot, ergo, Isshin somehow persuaded Byakuya to hire bodyguards. Great.' It would have been less annoying, if the men who had been sent had just done as ordered, but...

"Good morning miss Kuchiki."

Rukia inwardly groaned as she saw the figure of Shunsui Kyouraku, in all his flowery finery. He was wearing his usual pink robe, and had that stupid grin on his face as normal. Behind him, stood his subordinate, the more sane Nanao Ise.

"Morning," Rukia muttered to the two, as she and Ichigo walked into the kitchen. 'Breakfast, the third most insane time of day, after lunch and dinner.' Having any sub-combination of Ichigo's family in one room usually led to disaster. Having all of them in the same room was just asking for trouble.

"ICHIGO!" the flying form of Isshin headed from his seat straight towards his unfortunat son. Ichigo side stepped, and Isshin flew staight into Shunsui. 'That's two delt with for the moment,' Rukia thought as she and Ichigo calmly took their seats.

"Good morning you two," Yuzu said brightly from the stove, where she was helping her mother cook.

"Morning," the couple replied, Ichigo just waiting for Isshin to come flying back in.

"That wasn't very nice Ichigo!" Sure enough, Isshin sailed in. Ichigo leaned back and opened the window, making Isshin fly straight outside, crashing into Nanao, who had left to regain control over her rather strained emotions. Ichigo quickly shut the window, so as to block out Nanao's rather strong language.

"Here you go," Masaki said, serving some eggs up to Rukia, completely ignoring her husband's plight. Everyone silently agreed, 'He deserved it.'

-----

Rukia was sitting at Ichigo's desk, trying to do some homework. She was going to stay in school for as long as she could, as was Momo, but it was not easy for either of them. But at least in Rukia's case, she lived with the father. Momo and Toushiro lived a fair distance apart, as their parents were still trying to split them up, and get Momo to have an abortion. 'Poor girl,' Rukia thought. It just made her apreciate Ichigo more. 'Hm... Ichy is such a good boyfriend...' she descended into a random fantasy for a while, until 'No, fantasies after homework, or else I won't get any done.

She looked at her textbook, 'Causes of the American Civil War, fun!'

She started to work, occaisionally stopping for another day-dream.

-----

A/N: as I said, I have no idea what to write, so this is all for the moment. I know it's short but it's all I can think of.

Bis Bald

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	14. Chapter 14

A/N: yes, it's been ages since I updated, yes this chapter is really short again. I just haven't been able to come up with much lately. This story is not too far from completion, then I'll take a complete break from Bleach.

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch14: Troubles Ahead

_June, 5 months to go_

A six month pregnant Rukia lay back on her bed. She was waiting for Ichigo to come back from shopping. She was bored without him. At six months, she was showing a lot, and it was getting to the stage where she was having trouble doing some things for herself.

She rolled onto her side. She was still at school, but she was going to stop after the next week. Things were getting to the point of insanity, with Isshin running around madly to prepare for his grandson, and Ichigo out most of the time, since he got a part time job to help cover the cost of the baby. Rukia now spent most of her time just lying on the bed, waiting for something, whether it was dinner, Ichigo's return or time to sleep. She had absolutely nothing better to do.

'I wonder where Ichy is right now, I hope he's okay, and nobody tried to do anything to him again,' she was often worried about Ichigo's safety now, probably just her hormones telling her to fear every possible unfortunate, even if highly improbable, outcome.

She listened carefully when she heard the sound of the front door opening. She heard familiar footsteps coming up the stairs, and then the door was opened and she turned to see Ichigo smiling from the doorway. He walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed, "Hey there, you okay?"

Rukia sat up and smiled back, "I'm fine, I was just a little lonely without you."

Ichigo wondered at this, normally Rukia would deny feeling lonely, or anything of the sort, maybe it was just her hormones making her act differently from normal, maybe she was just more open to him these days. They had been together for six months now, so it was hardly surprising. He put an arm round her, "Well I'm here now, so you don't have to feel lonely any more. Now how about we go down for some dinner?"

Rukia nodded her assent, and they stood to go down. Ichigo kept his arm around Rukia, and Rukia leaned slightly against him. She silently wished that times like this would last forever.

-----

"Is everything prepared?"

"Yes, we have the Arrancar prepared to complete their objective. They will commence their operation at 4 am tomorrow morning as instructed. I made sure to give them the relevant orders about who to do what to."

"Good," Aizen replied in his calm yet menacing voice, the one he always slipped into when discussing anything of the nature of the events he had planned. "Then let Hell be raised."

-----

Nanao sat in the Kurosaki's kitchen, waiting for her shift on night watch to end. She could not wait to give the watch over to her flowery superior and go to bed. She looked at the clock: 3:57. Another few minutes and she could get some sleep at last.

The seconds ticked past, and then the three minutes. Nanao sighed with relief, and stood to go to wake Shunsui, when a noise caught her attention. It was the sound of footsteps, walking slowly down the hallway towards the kitchen. 'Could it be that he actually got up on time for once?' Nanao walked to the door and opened it, then felt something hard colide with her head from in front. She was unconscious before she could see her attacker's face.

Grimmjow smirked at the woman on the floor, "If I had time, I'd do something else to you, but I'm busy right now," he turned on his heel and walked up the stairs, heading to where the targets of the operation lay sleeping, blissfully unaware of what was about to befall them.

-----

Bis Bald

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	15. Chapter 15

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch15: Troubles Now

Grimmjow walked silently up the stairs of the Kurosaki house. At the top of the stairs, Ulquiorra waited for him. When Grimmjow reached his colleague, he whispered "I took out the guard, now which room is the one we want?"

Ulquiorra pointed to the twins' shared bedroom. The two of them advanced down the hall towards it. Grimmjow reached out to open the door...

"I bet you anything it's just Kyouraku on a drunken adventure."

"Well if that's the case you can make him go away Ichy. I'm really tired, and with the noise I can get any sleep."

"Fine," Ichigo stepped out of his room, in only pyjama bottoms, looked down the hall and froze. All three men now in the hallway were thinking roughly the same thing: to put it politely 'damn,' to put it less politely, 'Oh crap.'

"Ichy! What's going on out there?" Rukia's voice called from the bedroom. She stumbled out and saw the men.

What exactly happened next is a mystery to all the people there, though it is known that Rukia screamed, Grimmjow attacked Ichigo, and Ulquiorra used chloroform on the twins as they ran out to find the cause of the scream, before assisting Grimmjow in knocking Ichigo out. Ichigo's father appeared, and tried to stop the men, but Isshin ended up on the floor, while Rukia was given the same treatment as the twins. Kyouraku ran up the stairs, having been woken by the noise, but in his sleepy state, was easily knocked to the floor, while Grimmjow threw the twins over his shoulders, Ulquiorra took Rukia, and they quickly left, escaping to the van they had parked outside.

-----

It was a few hours later that Ichigo woke, his head aching worse than he had ever experienced before. Looking over him were his father and Shunsui. Ichigo blinked a few times, "Wha-what's going on?"

"Do you not remember?" Isshin asked, concerned by the severe blow he'd taken to the head.

Ichigo thought hard: he had been woken up the night before, there had been a noise, and he'd gone to check what it was because Rukia made him... Rukia.

Ichigo jumped straight up, "Where's Rukia? And the twins?"

Isshin sighed, "So you do remember, yes that all happened last night. We called the police, but because it was so dark we didn't see them properly."

Ichigo was on the verge of what one might call hysteria, more likely though, you would call it insanity. "WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON THOSE BASTARDS MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEM 'CAUSE I CERTAINLY WON'T!"

He was clutching his fist, ready to hit anything that interfered with his 'kill whoever took my Rukia' plan, when Isshin put a hand on his shoulder. "Ichigo calm down, your mother has something she wants to tell you," he motioned to Masaki, who had been quietly sitting aside, "it's to do with why this might have happened."

Ichigo turned to his mother, and she began, "Well..."

-----

Aizen entered the small room, looking at the two girls tied up there. The twins were both still unconscious. He smirked as he looked at Yuzu. 'So... like her mother.' He turned as he heard another person enter the room.

Gin entered, with his usual smirk and hooded eyes, "Well well. It seems those two were successful in bringing them here. Now could you possibly tell me what this is all about?"

Aizen gave one of his clearly false smiles, the sort that terrified most people, but thrilled Gin. "It's simple, you remember when we were young that Masaki Kurosaki was my first girlfriend. Then she left me when she met that would-be doctor. It's only natural that I should want revenge on him, and as for the twins..." Aizen turned to look at the girls.

"If you can't have the mother, the daughters will do?"

Aizen glanced back at Gin, one of his deadly grins in place. "Quite," was all he said.

-----

"So what you're saying Mum, is that you used to date a guy who has since become one of the most powerful and dangerous businessmen in the country, and that he may well be in charge of the rather infamous group of thugs known as the Arrancar. Because of his power and dislike towards Dad for 'taking you away' from him, you think this Aizen or whatever his name was might be responsible for the kidnap of the twins and Rukia," Ichigo said once his mother had explained everything. 'I'm sure I heard the name Aizen somewhere else before. I can't put my finger on it though...'

"Basically, yes," Masaki replied. "But there is the inate problem that, if he is the one behind this, then we can't do much to him. The police are very afraid of his thugs, so they tend to steer clear of him when possible."

Ichigo thought for a moment, then smiled, "So to beat a super-powerful businessman, why don't we use a super-powerful businessman." He stood and walked to the phone, lifted the receiver, and dialed a number. "Hello, I would liker to speak to Mr. Byakuya Kuchiki. Tell him it's Ichigo Kurosaki, and it's about his sister..."

-----

Rukia woke. Her eyes opened to see the dark room she was held in. There was a window high up in the wall, but it was so small that she could barely make out the rest of the room. She felt ropes around her wrists and ankles. She was sat against a wall.

'Where am I...' the memories of the previous night returned. 'God! I hope somebody comes soon. Ichy, please come find me, and our baby.' She looked down at her stomach. 'Please hurry... Ichigo.'

-----

So, how should Byakuya react? Hm... well I'll decide that later. My apologies for the long delays, and for the brief chapters, but I just haven't had the time, and writer's block is ever present. The next bit is moderately straightforward to write though, so it should get done faster.

Please give me some reviews, it's nice to know I'm still loved. :)

Bis Bald

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	16. Chapter 16

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch16: Darkness All Around

_"So, Kurosaki, what you are telling me is that you allowed two men to enter your house, knock out the guard on duty and kidnap your sisters and Rukia, and you want my help to rescue them. Correct?" _Byakuya's voice was dripping with so much anger that most people would have been terrified, even down a phone line. Ichigo was just worried for the people responsible. Okay, he wanted to kill the bastards too, but Byakuya's method would be rather more painful for them.

"That just about sums it up." Ichigo was surprisingly calm considering everything that had just happened. He was saving up his fury for when they caught this Aizen and his friends. 'Aizen... Why does that name seem so familiar?' Ichigo put that thought aside for the moment.

_"Well then, I'll dispach my 'friends' to see what I can find out. If it is Aizen, then it could be complicated to sort this out. His company, Kyoka, is as large as my own, but he has rather more connections to certain 'unsavoury' groups, making him difficult to touch." _

"So what do you suggest we do?"

_"I will contact some of my connections to see what I can find out for sure. We do **not** want to upset Sosuke Aizen unnecessarily. For the moment I would suggest that you wait, although I know perfectly well that you won't, so instead I suggest that you get the help of anyone you can. I believe from what Rukia told me that one of your friends' father is high up in the police force, his help could be invaluable."_

Ichigo thought about this. It seemed like a good idea, Toushiro's father was the man in charge of the local police division. But lately, the relationship between Toushiro and his father had been strained, ever since Momo had found out that she was pregnant. Ironic really: if Ichigo had had to bet on who would be most likely to get angry over the news of the two pregnancies, he would have put all his money on it being Byakuya. "Well... that particular case could be a little difficult."

_"I have heard about Master Hitsugaya and Miss Hinamori's situation, and about their families' reactions. I will have a personal discussion with Mr. Hitsugaya about this matter."_

"Okay. So I need to see if I can get anyone else to help? How am I supposed to do that? I'm still in school."

_"I'm sure you'll find help somehow, that's what Kurosakis seem to be good at."_

"What do you mean by that?"

_"Oh, your father was good at gathering friends to help if needed. He was quite... charismatic when he wanted to be."_

"Well I'm nothing like him."

_"I think that you may have inherited that one attribute from him. Regardless, I need to speak to certain people to organise things. I will communicate with you as soon as I know more."_

"Okay then, goodbye."

Ichigo hung up the phone and turned to his parents. "Byakuya'll help us, but we need to find other people to help if we can. This will be difficult."

Masaki sighed, "I know. Sosuke was always so very... I don't know how to describe him. He was mysterious, and yet... always seemed to be in absolute control of everything around him. He was... dangerous I suppose is the best way to put it."

Ichigo cast his eyes down. Although he had calmed down a little, he was deeply worried about his girlfriend and their baby.

"I know somebody who might be able to help. He runs a shop not too far from here. Above ground it's just like any corner shop, but the owner is involved in some things which are... shall we say below ground." Isshin was speaking a little quietly, unlike his normal self. He was certainly worried about his daughters and Rukia, but there was something else in his voice. This person he was talking about did not seem the most savory of people, but if he could help get Rukia back, Ichigo did not really care.

"Who is he?"

"An old school acquaintance of your mother's and mine: Kisuke Urahara."

* * *

'Cough! Cough!'

"Sir, are you okay?" Tessai asked the shopkeeper.

"Yeah, I think somebody just spoke about me though, in not too nice terms as well," Urahara said, looking out from under his hat's brim.

"If you're sure, but otherwise, I have some great medicine for that sort of thing!" Tessai said, reaching inside his apron.

"N-no! I'm fine Tessai. But I have a feeling that sombody's going to come and see us soon."

* * *

In hell dark cell, Rukia cried silently. Her wrists and ankles were sore from the ropes tying her down. She was starving, and was considering eating the ropes she was bound with. Then she heard a noise, and the door to her cell was opened. She made out a dark man, with black hair, dressed all in black. He wore sunglasses, which seemed insane when they were inside. In his hands he held a tray. He advanced towards Rukia.

"I have brought you some food," his voice was still and calm. He put the tray in-front of Rukia, and untied her hands so that she could eat the food. It was only bread with a glass of water, but Rukia devoured it quickly. The man appeared to watch her carefully. "I apologise for the way you are treated. I dislike this way of doing things, but I must do it."

He took the tray and re-tied Rukia's arms. Rukia looked up at him, "Please, tell me why this is happening."

"It is... complicated." The man pushed the sunglasses up his nose.

"And why do you wear those, you look like an idiot?"

"They contain a device which enables me to see, to a degree. I was born sightless, but a friend of mine developed these so that I could see at least partially." He turned away, "I must leave now." He left Rukia alone to herself. She sighed, and thought of Ichigo. 'I hope... he comes soon.'

* * *

Bis Bald

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	17. Chapter 17

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch17: Shopping for Trouble

Ichigo had never gone into the part of town that his father was leading them into now. It was one of those areas that you should not go into, unless you happen to have three pistols concealed on your person. As such, Ichigo was wondering why they were going anywhere near it, as they did not, or so he believed, have a single gun on them. It was fairly run-down, and gangs used it as a place to fight without the police being likely to find them. I was your typical slum district, and that made Ichigo wonder even more about why this Urahara would have a shop there, much less why Isshin thought that this guy could help them get Rukia back from Aizen.

Ichigo and his father came up to a shop that was remarkablely well-kept for the area. Ichigo turned to his father, "Is this the place?"

"Yep," Isshin replied, "I just hope Kisuke's in today."

"What was that about me?" a new voice asked them, as the shop door opened, and out walked the strangest looking man that Ichigo had ever seen. He had blonde hair, though it was hard to see it under the strange green and white striped hat he wore. The matching coat made him just seem unreal, as if some insane manga-artist had dreamed him up while trying to come up with a somewhat shady, but ultimately good character.

"Ah, Kisuke, long time no see," Isshin spoke to Urahara.

"Isshin? I didn't expect to see you around here again. What brings you to my humble abode, and may I ask who that young man beside you is?"

"This is my son Ichigo. As for why we're here, it's a long story. You remember Sosuke Aizen?"

Kisuke laughed. "Old Sosuke? I remember him. Always with his massive superiority complex: 'I will take my place at the top,' etcetera. Has he been giving you trouble?" He asked, standing aside to let the two Kurosakis in.

"You could say that," Isshin replied as they entered.

* * *

Byakuya was looking through a pile of documents as he was driven to the airport. He was returning home to help save his sister. He had already alerted various authorities about the kidnapping, and offered a huge reward for his sister and the twins' return. He was not very hopeful about that though: he knew enough about Aizen to know that money was not his goal. But what worried Byakuya was what his goal might be.

His phone rang and he put it to his ear. "Yes, it is... You've located them? Inside Kyoka's headquarters? I would not have thought he'd be so bold as to hide them there. Send me a bluepprint with details including their locations. Very good. Goodbye."

Byakuya hung up, and checked his laptop, awaiting the email he should recieve shortly. A few minutes later he recieved a document, with full details of Kyoka HQ's structure, and the locations of the twins and Rukia. The building went a few floors underground, where the twins were kept, whil Rukia was at the top of the building. Byakuya noted the clever stategy: whichever of them they rescued first, they would give full warning to the guards at the other, and those near the entrance. They would have to think very carefully about how to get inside and get out without being spotted.

The car pulled up at the airport, and Byakuya got out of the car. He walked up to the entrance and went to the desk to find out where his plane, privately chartered of course, was to take off. He needed to get back as fast as possible to get his sister away from Aizen. He did not want anything to happen to his sister, or her child.

* * *

"So, that's why you've come. And what sort of help do you think a humble shopkeeper could give you?" Urahara asked Isshin after he had explained the situation.

"Cut the act out Kisuke. I know you have connections, and more importantly supplies to help us. So we just need to know how much everything costs," Isshin said calmly and far more seriously than normal.

"For you, my old friend, I think I can get you some things very cheap, and if Kuchiki's the one paying, you should easily be able to prepare things for a small army if you need to."

"A small army? What exactly are you planning?" Ichigo asked worried.

"Well there are two ways of getting Rukia and the twins out if it was Aizen. First is to sneak in, somehow avoiding all the security, and get them out, all without anybody noticing. Second is to break in there with all guns blazing. To be honest, I think the second is much easier, and more practical given our resources," Isshin said without a hint of a joke about his demeanour.

"Ichigo wasn't it? Have you ever held a gun in your life?" Urahara asked. When Ichigo shook his head Urahara sighed. "Well I'd better get you trained. Fortunately there's a new model out: the Zangetsu, good for this sort of thing. If I've got to train you, I might as well train you with that. But as I've only managed to get my hands on one of it, you'll be the only person getting one, okay?"

Ichigo swalowed hard and nodded, before Urahara stood and led him into a different room. In there, there was a trapdoor which Urahara opened, revealing a ladder. They climbed down and into a small room, which only contained a door. Urahara unlocked it, and they entered. When Ichigo saw what was inside, he gasped. Lining the walls were all different types of guns: pistols, shotguns, rifles, even the odd sub-machinegun. 'What the hell have I got myself into?' Ichigo wondered.

Urahara had disappeared into the back of the room, and came back holding a huge rifle. "Well here you go Ichigo, the Zangetsu, a fully automatic assault rifle, with three kinds of rounds: a 'standard' 55 calibur round, a fragmenting round, and then the special 'Tenshou' round. It acts like a normal hard-nose round, but each one contains a small explosive charge, which will detonate approximately 0.1 seconds after impact. It's rather useful for taking people down. The fire rate is about 10 shots per second if you don't want to aim, either firing in bursts or one at a time, with 60 shots per clip. Nice isn't it?"

Ichigo just stared at the gun, which had a barrel about half as tall as he was. It had a leather strap to hold it when you were not firing, and a heavily padded butt, probably to reduce the kick-back. Ichigo still imagined that a single shot from that thing would destroy your shoulder, and was wondering how on Earth he was going to manage to fire a burst without needing a replacement arm.

"Come on, let's start your practise while your father choses what he wants," Urahara said, leading Ichigo away while Isshin looked over the choice of guns.

'This is insane.' Ichigo briefly thought, before following Urahara through to a shooting range.

* * *

A/N:Please review. That's all for the moment. My apologies that this is taking so long but... I'm sure there's a good reason that I just can't think of.

Bis Bald

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	18. Chapter 18

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch18: Friends

Ichigo held the gun up to his shoulder, and pulled the trigger. A single shot went straight through the target he was aiming at. Kisuke looked at the fallen target. "Bullseye."

Ichigo massaged his shoulder as he lowered the gun. The kick-back's effect was starting to take its toll. He had been practising for at least three hours, and his shoulder was aching. "How much more should I train if I'm going to be ready for this?"

"As much as you can. But you'll need more people if you're going to succeed in beating Aizen and his friends."

"Well there's Byakuya, I'm sure he'll be able to get help."

"You really don't understand what you're up against do you? To persuade amy group to go up against Aizen would be near impossible. He controls at least as much power as Byakuya, and that's just above ground. Trust me, I've been dealing below ground for years, there are few people who, upon hearing Aizen say 'jump' would not leap into the clouds immediately."

"So... what you're telling me is that we don't stand a chance?"

"Pretty much."

"Well thanks for the tip," Ichigo said, raising the gun again, pointing it at Urahara," But I think I'll keep going 'til the end." He swung the gun to the next target and set the gun to burst fire. He pulled the trigger, reducing the target to scraps of paper.

"Why are you working so hard? Risking your life like this seems futile," Urahara asked, as Ichigo lowered the gun.

"Now you're the one that doesn't understand, Mr. Urahara. I may not be able to beat Aizen, but I can't rest until Rukia and the twins are safe, or I've died trying to rescue them." Ichigo raised the gun, "Next target if you please."

Urahara smirked as he replaced the target again. If nothing else, he admired Ichigo's spirit. And maybe, just maybe, he was in with a chance of succeeding, where anybody else would fail.

* * *

Toushiro ran down the back streets, trying to find the place Mrs Kurosaki had directed him to. His father, as a high-up in the police force, had been informed of what happened at the Kurosaki's house, and had told Toushiro. The teenager had then proceeded to call everybody to tell them. Everybody, except Momo of course, had rushed over to the Kurosaki's at once. When they found out that Ichigo and Isshin had left to get help they immediately went to find him.

Toushiro turned the corner, his friends close behind him. They all stopped in front of the shop.

"You sure this is the place?" Ikkaku asked him.

"This is the address Mrs Kurosaki gave me, it must be."

"Well why don't we go in?" Rangiku asked.

Toushiro nodded, and walked up to the door. As he opened it, a bell rang, announcing their arrival. He looked around once inside. There was no sign of Ichigo or anybody else in the shop. It looked just like any corner shop, with ordinary goods everywhere.

In the back of the shop a door opened, and a tall muscular man came out of it. "Hello there. Welcome to the Urahara shop. Can I help you?"

Toushiro looked the man up and down before replying, "Is Mr. Urahara here at the moment?"

"I think so, may I ask what this is about?"

"It's about the Kurosakis."

A new voice joined them, "Ah, so you must be Ichigo's friends. Come on down." Toushiro turned to the voice. A man with the worst dress sense Toushiro had ever encountered had come out of a trap-door.

"Are you Urahara?"

"That'd be me. Tessai, close up the shop, this business is rather important to keep private." The muscular man nodded. Then Urahara turned to Toushiro again, "Please come down all of you." He then disappeared down through the trap-door again.

Toushiro and the others followed, as they each reached the bottom of the ladder they went through the door there. As each walked through the door, they looked around with amazement written all over their faces. The only one not surprised was Toushiro, who turned to where Urahara was standing. "So this is the sort of help you're giving them."

"Well they needed supplies, so I'm providing them."

"Tell me," Toushiro said inquisitively, "how many laws exactly are broken by this room's existance?"

"A few dozen at least I'm sure. But of course, you won't tell anybody about that will you?"

"Maybe, if it helps Kurosaki."

Apart from Toushiro, everybody was looking around at the guns lining the wall. "Is this for real?" Tatsuki asked aloud.

"I don't like it," Orihime said, a little fear in her voice.

"What's wrong? Scared?" Yoruichi asked her, while looking at a set of pistols.

"Please Yoruichi, don't start now," Renji said, as he looked over a few rifles.

"So," Urahara said, "You're here to help the Kurosakis I take it."

"Yeah, though what they're planning doesn't look very good," Hitsugaya replied.

"This is _the _Sosuke Aizen we're dealing with. How else do you plan to save Miss Kuchiki and the Kurosaki twins?"

Toushiro did not answer. It was then that a door opened and Isshin and Ichigo, his gun still hanging by its strap from his shoulder, walked out. Ichigo opened his eyes wide at the sight of them all. "What're you guys doing here?"

"Well they're..." Urahara began, but Toushiro cut him off.

"We're here to help you, Kurosaki."

Ichigo's surprise increased, "Guys, you can't..."

"Ichigo," Youruichi spoke, "Remember what we all agreed when Soi came to be with me. It was a silly agreement at the time, but we all meant what we said. Anybody who interferes with any us is gonna get hell from all of us."

"She's right," Renji said, "I made a mistake once, but I'll be damned if I do twice."

"But guys, you could get killed. I don't want to have that on my conscience," Ichigo tried to argue.

"Then you'd better not let any of us die," Ikkaku said bluntly.

"Guys..."

"Ichigo, we're all friends, and we want to save Rukia and the twins too," Tatsuki said.

"Come on Ichigo, we want to help, however we can," Orihime spoke as well."

"You heard them, we're helping, whether you like it or not," Toushiro said.

"You're all such idiots..." Ichigo said. Then he smiled, "But then again, I am too." He turned away, lifting his gun as he walked back to the door he came from, to the firing range. He stopped at the door. "Alright. Urahara, kit them all out. I'll call Byakuya to find out where he is. Then we can go and give Aizen hell."

* * *

A/N: It's me again. This is getting there, slowly. Still got a good half a dozen chapters in it yet. Please keep the reviews coming, it keeps me writing this. For now:

Bis Bald

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	19. Chapter 19

A/N: WAHOO! Just finished my exams on Friday, now feeling pretty damn good. I'm gonna do my best to complete this story in not too long. So here we go with the next chapter:

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch19: Assault

_July, 4 months to go_

Ichigo sat in the office opposite Byakuya, a blueprint of Kyoka's headquarters building. It had been about a week since the kidnapping, and while both men in the office had desperately wanted to break in immediately to reclaim their family, they had agreed to wait and plan things out properly. Byakuya had carefully annotated the blueprint with notes about how to get into the building and rescue the twins and Rukia. The two men in the office were going over the plans again. They were going to begin the rescue attempt the next day.

"So," Byakuya spoke, "Are we clear on the plans?"

"Yeah, I've got it." Ichigo stood, "I'll contact my friends, meet at Urahara's 9 o'clock tomorrow then."

"Very well, and one last thing Ichigo."

Ichigo, who had been about to leave waited for Byakuya to speak.

"When we split up, I want you to lead the group heading for Rukia, while I stay at the entrance."

Ichigo was taken aback, "Why?"

"We need some a few of us to cover the entrance, and to be honest, I think that it is your job to save Rukia."

Ichigo looked into the cold eyes of the older man. They may have been cold, but he could see one thing in them: complete trust. "Very well," Ichigo replied, "just make sure you cover our backs well."

Ichigo turned and walked out of the room, before reaching into his pocket for his mobile to call his friends. They had been getting ready for a week, it was almost time to start showing Aizen what happens when you mess with the Kurosakis.

* * *

It was 8:57 the next day. Ichigo stood inside Urahara's shop, his rifle held on his shoulder by the strap. Around him stood the others, each equipped for the oncoming operation. Yoruichi and Soi each carried pistols and knives, while Tatsuki stuck with just pistols, Renji, Ikkaku and Yumichika each carried assault rifles, Rangiku carried a submachine gun, Toushiro held an adapted flamethrower, which instead on spraying burning petrol, sprayed liquid nitrogen, kept cool by an insulated container, and Chad carried a man-portable missile launcher. Uryu and Orihime both had medical supplies to support their teams. Everybody was dressed in black, with balaclavas on so that only their eyes showed.

Isshin stood by his son, carrying a submachine gun. At the stroke of 9, Byakuya entered, and Urahara gave him his own weapon: a small minigun. He then turned to Ichigo, "Are we ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

A van awaited them outside. They all got in the back, except for Byakuya, Ichigo and Isshin, who was driving. They drove along the streets, heading in the direction of Kyoka. They reached it, and Isshin half turned into the car-park, when Ichigo shouted back, "Guys, get ready, we're going in." Then he looked to his father, "Put the pedal down Dad." Isshin smirked, before slamming his foot down, as everybody braced themselves.

* * *

If we look at the physical asspects of a small truck crashing into a glass office front, it is hardly surprising that the glass should break upon impact. It is slightly more of a surprised to note that the truck will likely take a fair amount of damage too, mainly being the breaking of the windscreen. Also, one should try to avoid being within a few yards of the impact, due to the general scattering of glass. Unfortunately for the guard stationed at the front desk, the distance between him and the impact point was somewhat less than a few yards.

When Ichigo's friends broke out of the back, the guard at the desk was already on the floor in extreme pain. None of them paid him any heed, as Yoruichi, Soi and Tatsuki moved to each of the corridors leading off the main entrance, excluding the stairs up and down, planting explosives round the inside of the corridors about half-way down, moving out of the corridors almost in perfect unison, before remotely priming them to explode should they detect any motion near them.

Ichigo quickly got to the stairs, taking the way up. Isshin went to the other stairway, as the group split into three: Renji, Toushiro, Uryu, Yoruichi and Soi following Ichigo, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Rangiku, Tatsuki and Orihime went after Isshin, and Chad staying in the entrance area, while Byakuya pulled the van back out, turning it to face away from the entrance, so that they could make a quick escape.

* * *

Ichigo and his group quickly ran up the stairs, with alarms going off all around them. On the first floor, a group of guards stood pointing their guns at the group. Ichigo noticed something flashing past him on each side. Then he saw Soi and Yoruichi pulling one of their pistols each out in front of him, emptying the first clip into the guards, before drawing their knives and dealing with those still standing. A few shots strayed near the girls, and Yoruichi was grazed on the cheek, but, thanks to their amazing speed, nothing more severe.

Within moments, the guards were all incapacitated. The group kept running up the stairs. Ichigo was looking ahead, praying that Rukia would be alright.

'Rukia, wait for me, I'm coming to get you.'

* * *

Aizen was sat in his office at the top of Kyoka when the security alarms started. He was mildly surprised, though nobody would be able to tell from his appearance. He was almost expecting this to happen eventually, though he was still a little surprised that anybody would attack Kyoka's headquarters, whether or not to save a family member or three.

He stood from his desk, and made his way to a cabinet which was built into the wall, and took the gun from inside.

"Oh, getting serious now are we?" Gin, who had as usual materialised from nowhere, asked.

"Well, if they attack me, I have to defend myself, right?"

"Well well. I must say I'm looking forward to this," Gin spoke, while his trademark grin intensified.

"You can have your fun too if you like, I just hope the guards downstairs are competent enough to deal with those of them who are likely heading to the basement. I still haven't had my way with either of those twins."

Gin's simply smirked, as he stood behind Aizen, while the other man readied the rifle in his hands.

* * *

A/N: So, stuff is actually happening now. Aizen is (probably) about to get a super serving of Ichigo-style ass-kicking as everybody seems to want. Please review as always, and a thanks to those of you who have. See you next chapter.

Bis Bald

BW


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Sorry this took so long, but it's finally here. I've been busy lately, among other things because I just started on FictionPress, so yeah, I've been doing lots, and it's just taken a while to get this up. Anyway, here we go:

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch20: Assault Some More

Ichigo hurried up another flight of steps, reaching the 13th floor of 25. Behind him, Renji was busy busy spraying the guards from the floor below with a hail of bullets. As Ichigo ran to the next flight of steps, Soi and Yoruichi pulled out their pistols and took down a fair few of the guards on the floor they were on, while Toushiro doused the rest in liquid nitrogen, freezing them to the spot.

Ichigo made it up to the turning in the staircase, then as he turned saw a group of guards stood at the top. Ten seconds later, Ichigo was loading his next clip as he ran over the fallen guards, with the others in his team following closely behind him.

They reached the 15th floor and Ichigo signalled for them to stop. There did not seem to be any guards on that floor at the moment: they were probably lying dead on unconscious on one of the lower floors. Uryu ran about patching up the cuts that his friends had acquired.

"Soi, Yoruichi, set the bombs here, on the staircases up and down. That should stop anyone following us down when we've got lower. Try to set them in a way that won't make the whole building come down though, okay?" Ichigo said, and the two girls nodded and obliged.

Once set, Yoruichi handed a detonater to Ichigo. "This'll set them off, and I have one too just in case. Press the big red button for an instant explosion, of the green one for a ten second delay. The range is about 100m, so we should be fine."

Ichigo nodded, before turning to the others, "Ready?"They all nodded, and Ichigo turned to the next staircase and started to run up it.

* * *

"Oh dear, this isn't good."

"What is it Gin?" Aizen asked his 'friend.'

"We've lost contact with nearly all squads between floors 15 and -8, except on floor 0, and they've sent us a message that when they tried to get to the entrance the corridors blew up. They seem to be getting pretty close to the bottom, they're only 2 floors away."

"I'm not too worried about them, but that other group seems to be making quick progress up here. Contact all teams from floor 16 up and tell them to move to floor 24 and concentrate their fire down the moment anybody comes up."

"I'm sending the order... now." Gin tilted his head as he read the information on the screen in front of him. "We've lost contact with floors 16 to 19. And 20." He added the last part as another flashing word appeared on the computerised blueprint in front of him on the 20th floor. "The remaining teams are moving as fast as they can... and 21 is gone too."

Aizen sighed, "Have the Arrancar ready themselves, prepare for a very hard fight."

"22 is gone, and I'm relaying the order now."

* * *

Isshin and his group reached the tenth basement floor: the lowest level. The guards had been quickly taken care of, and now the group were frantically searching for the twins.

Isshin passed door after door, looking for some sign from one of them that it was where they were held. Eventually he noticed a door with a newer lock on it than the others, meaning it had probably been changed recently. Isshin turned his gun to the lock and blew it off. He pushed it open to see inside, and found nothing. There was absolutely no sign of anybody being held there. Isshin continued to run through the hallways, while the others assisting him went through checking every door in turn.

He came up to another door at the end of the hallway, and kicked it off it's hinges. Inside it was black, but he heard a mufled gasp. He quickly pulled out a torch and flicked it on. He saw the twins, both tied down to chairs back to back, and with gags in their mouths.

Isshin shouted back to those behind him, "They're in here, come help me!" Then he went over to them and pulled out a knife.

Yuzu flinched, and Isshin remembered that they could not see his face. He pulled the balaclava off to let them see, then cut the ropes binding Yuzu, who immediately jumped at him, throwing her arms round his neck and crying into his shoulder. He hugged her with one hand, while he cut Karin free with the other. Karin was more calm than her sister, but only a little, and she pretty much jumped her father too. The other members of the group came to the door, or what was left of it, but waited outside.

"Dad... Dad... you came..." Yuzu said between sobs.

"Yeah, and your brother's here too, upstairs getting Rukia."

"They got her too?" Karin, who had pretty much calmed down by this point, asked.

"Yeah, but don't worry, Ichigo'll get her back, now we need to get out of here."

They all stood, and left the room, but Isshin noticed something, "Yuzu, your clothes..."

Yuzu looked down. The night dress she was still in had several rips in them, the most obvious one going right across her chest. "One of them... he... he..." Yuzu broke down again. Isshin picked her up and hugged her. Then he proceeded out, carrying the still weeping Yuzu, and the others followed, along with Karin.

* * *

Ichigo was on the 23rd floor when the radio he had been given bleeped, signaling that somebody was trying to call him. He took it from the pouch he had been carrying it in and put it to his ear, "Ichigo here."

_"Ichigo, I've got good news and really shit news," _Isshin spoke through the radio.

"Gimme the good first."

_"We've rescued the twins, and got back about halfway to the ground floor."_

"Good, I'm on the 23rd floor at the moment. Now what's the bad news?"

As Isshin gave the reply, Ichigo's fist tightened and threatened to break the radio.

"Dad, do you want the joy of killing the bastard, or may I have the enjoyment of it?"

_"Feel free to do whatever you want to him."_

"Thanks, now I'd better go and finish this." Ichigo ended the conversation and put the radio back in its pouch.

"Everything okay?" Toushiro asked.

"Not really, but one thing, please don't any of you kill Aizen, I want that very special pleasure." There was a manic look in Ichigo's eyes as he said that, and all any of the others did was nod.

Ichigo turned to wards the stair and began to ascend them, this time only walking, as his fury emanated from him. All the others followed meekly behind.

* * *

Bis Bald

BW


	21. Chapter 21

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch21: Ichigo Kurosaki's Guide To Ass-Kicking Part 1

Ichigo hardly looked at the guards at the top of the staircase up to the 24th floor. Each of his clips had 60 rounds in them, yet the 80 people stood at the top of the staircase were somehow all taken down with one clip. Make sense? Yes: Ichigo was pissed, and if there was one thing that you learned soon after meeting him, it was that you should never, under any circumstances piss off Ichigo Kurosaki.

As he reloaded and stepped up onto the next floor, over the fallen guards, he caught sight of ten more guards to his left, and without even looking round properly, blasted a volley into the guards. However, these guards had evidently invested in body armour, as most of the shots bounced off, and the rest only caused minor grazes. Ichigo raised his gun up as his friends reached him.

As the guards were not shooting, Ichigo spoke, "Who are you?"

"We're the Arrancar, Aizen's personal bodyguard, and we'd very much appreciate you turning around and leaving now," one of them said.

Ichigo looked closely at the speaker, before speaking again, "I'm sorry, but even if I could before, I couldn't now." He lowered his gun again, pointing it at Grimmjow Jeagerjaques. "Because you're one of the ones who took the twins and Rukia," he flicked something on the gun, "I have to kill you."

Ichigo pulled the trigger as he finished speaking, firing one Tenshou round into Grimmjow, entering just above his left eye. To describe what happened when the bullet exploded is unnecessary and disgusting, so let us just assume that Grimmjow was dead afterwards okay?

Once what was left of Grimmjow had fallen, all hell broke loose in the corridor, as the two sides opened fire. But gradually, both sides were word down, until the only two standing were Ichigo and Ulquiorra, both miraculously unharmed amid the wounded, and each pointing their guns at the other.

"I'm impressed, you guys did more than 24 floors worth of guards," Ichigo said, almost laughing.

"We are the very best, but I am surprised that you got through the guards so easily. You may be more than the trash I first assumed you would be."

"I'll take that as a compliment, but I'm not here for idle chatter, let's end this quickly..."

"I concur."

Both were about to pull their triggers, when Ulquiorra froze up, and his knees buckled, as blood trickled out of the bullet-hole that had apeared in his neck. Ichigo looked around, to see Uryu holding a pistol, and pointing it at where Ulquiorra had been.

Uryu looked at Ichigo, "Ichigo, go ahead, I'll look after the others, but you need to save Rukia."

"Alright, just get out of here quickly." Ichigo put his gun up on his shoulder and turned to leave, but then glanced back, "Be careful Uryu."

Uryu nodded from where he was now knelt, trying to help a semi-conscious Toushiro, "You too Ichigo."

"I don't need to be careful, all I need to do is give them Hell," Ichigo walked away down the corridor, making sure to step on the remains of Grimmjow.

Uryu watched him leave. "Idiot," he muttered to himself before turning back to Toushiro.

* * *

Aizen sat waiting, as Gin watched the screen. "The Arrancar are down," the latter suddenly said.

"Indeed? Then we should get ready, they will be here soon." He slid his eyes to look at a locked door to the left of him, "We wouldn't want them saving Miss Kuchiki now would we?"

Gin nodded, then started tapping on the keyboard in front of him, "Commencing lockdown of the top floor." Around the 25th floor, thick metal panels slid across doors, and the staircase folded away, effectively separating the 25th floor from the lower ones.

"I would like to see him get through this," Aizen said softly.

Then the two men heard a banging on the door, repeating again and again. 'Bang, Bang, BANG.' After the third hit, the door gave way, metal covering and all, to reveal a rather pissed off Ichigo. "You know, it's polite to answer when somebody knocks on your door," he said, gesturing to the remnants of the door, which under normal circumstances should not have broken from just one man ramming it. But this was no ordinary man, this was a very pissed Ichigo Kurosaki. Ichigo pointed his gun at Aizen, "So you're the one behind all this, Sosuke Aizen?"

"Yes, I am," Aizen replied calmly, as if an enraged redhead had not just broken into his office, with a gun in one hand.

Ichigo raized his gun, pointing it straight at Aizen, "Then DIE!"

'BANG'

* * *

From her confinement cell, Rukia looked up at the sound of crashing, and the a voice. She thought she was imagining it, but it was...

"Ichigo..." she said quietly to herself.

She then heard him shout, "Then DIE!"

A gunshot sounded, and a cry of pain followed, and Rukia shook slightly from fear.

'Ichigo, please be okay...'

* * *

A/N: Short I know, but... meh. Review please.

Bis Bald

BW


	22. Chapter 22

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch22: Ichigo Kurosaki's Guide To Ass-Kicking Part 2

"Then DIE!"

'BANG'

Ichigo felt pain. A bullet had struck him in the side. As he fell to the ground, he saw a dark-skinned man with sunglasses on, holding a pistol, which had clearly just been fired. As Ichigo hit the floor, the world went black.

_'So, you're back to visit me again?'_

Ichigo could not see anything, but he heard a voice in his head, then suddenly he saw an outline, it was a person.

"You're back here."

"You again?" Ichigo recognised the voice from before, the same one as he had heard in his dreams.

"Yeah. Seriously Ichigo, you get involved in some crazy shit. Then again, all of the 'you's do that, so I shouldn't be surprised."

"You know, I still don't get what you're talking about."

"Then just watch."

The area around Ichigo suddenly lit up, and he saw himself, lying on the ground, blood running from several wounds that covered his body, his black kimono red with the blood.

He saw another figure run towards the him on the ground, her short raven-black hair covering her face, but Ichigo knew who it was. As he watched, Rukia knelt by him, and put her arms around him, lifting his head up towards her.

Ichigo looked back to see the same figure as before, only now he was much clearer, pure black against the blue of the sky, "What is this about?"

"Just watch."

Ichigo looked back to see Rukia and the oher him embracing tightly. Then everything went back again, and then light again to show a different place.

Ichigo was flying past a motorway, and down the wide road there was only one car driving, a sleek black open-topped sports car, and in it were another Ichigo and Rukia.

Ichigo felt himself moving towards his double, and noticed something glinting on Rukia's hand. On her left ring finger was a ring.

Ichigo turned back to the shadow, "So what are you trying to tell me, I need to get back to saving Rukia."

"That's exactly what I'm showing you, you and Rukia Kuchiki are together in every world. You are one of the multiversal constants, and while in every world you have to fight to be together, you always succeed. So Ichigo Kurosaki, it's time you go kick some ass."

"Just one last question, who are you?"

"I am every version of you, all combined in part into one being." As the shadow spoke, Ichigo saw his own form step from the shadow. "So give 'em hell from me, from us."

* * *

Ichigo could feel himself falling backward. He could feel the pain in his side again, but now it was dulled. He managed to get his feet down on the ground again, and slid along the ground slightly, before coming to a stop, and slinging his gun round, pointing it straight at at the man in sunglasses. Ichigo pulled the trigger, and emptied half a clip into the man's face, shattering the glasses, and killing him.

Ichigo then swung the gun around to Aizen, shooting the gun that Aizen had grabbed, hitting the man's hand, making him drop the gun. Aizen ran towards a gun cabinet, and Ichigo followed him with his gun.

Then the clip ran out. Ichigo grabbed for another clip, but found he was out of them. He grabbed his gun by the barrel, and ran at Aizen, who had just taken a new rifle from the cabinet, and had aimed at Ichigo. A few shots rang out, each one narrowly missing Ichigo, who reached Aizen and swung the rifle into Aizen's head, dazing him. Ichigo then grabbed Aizen's collar, and walked to a large window which looked out over the town.

"This is for what you've done, for kidnapping Rukia and the twins, and for what you did to Yuzu," Ichigo shouted the anger evident in his voice.

"I don't regret it, I only regret that you've won."

"Monster! Kidnapper! Rapist! These names are too FUCKING KIND! ROT IN HELL YOU BASTARD!" Ichigo smashed Aizen through the glass and let go of him. Ichigo turned away, as the man fell 25 floors to the ground below. If you were close enough a suitable loud splat could be heard. But the only people who could have heard were dead.

Ichigo looked round to see Gin tapping on the computer, "I'm opening up all the doors now, and setting this place to self-destruct at the press of one button.

"You have a self-destruct mechanism? That's a bit cliche isn't it?"

"Perhaps, anyway, you should go get Miss Kuchiki," he said pointing to a door which had just opened. "I'll set this place off once you're out."

"Why are you helping us?"

"You know Rangiku right?"

Ichigo was a little surprised, "Yes."

"Tell her Gin is sorry, then you'll know."

Ichigo nodded, before entering the small, dark room. "Rukia?"

"Ichigo?" Ichigo saw Rukia tied up against the wall. He quickly got to her, and undid the ropes. "Ichigo!" she threw her arms around him, and held him tightly.

"It's okay now Rukia, I'm here."

* * *

Bis Bald

BW


	23. Chapter 23

A Whole Twelve Months, Ch23: The End

_November, 0 months to go_

Ichigo and Rukia sat in the living room, while Rukia held their son Ichigatsu. Across from them sat Byakuya.

"So how is my nephew?" Byakuya asked.

"He's been doing okay brother."

"And Hitsugaya's daughter?"

"She's fine too from what I heard," Ichigo replied.

"That's good. And how are the two of you?" Byakuya asked.

"We've been okay, the last month or so has been a bit slow. Getting used to being parents is tough, but we're getting there," Ichigo replied.

"Very good..." Byakuya was cut off when Ichigatsu began crying.

"Excuse me a moment..." Rukia said, leaving the two men.

"Well..." Byakuya began hesitantly, "I suppose this is as good a time as any to discuss it..."

"Discuss what?" Ichigo asked.

"You remember when I visited you the first time after you and Rukia started dating? Remember that I had my reasons for not objecting at all to it?"

"Yeah... vaguely," Ichigo said thinking back.

"Well, I wanted to tell you the reason for that." Byakuya smiled slightly as he thought before speaking, "You know of course that Rukia and I aren't blood siblings."

"Yeah, weren't you her older sister's husband, and then you adopted Rukia as your sister when your wife died, as she didn't have any other family?"

"In essence that is what happened, yes." Byakuya paused before continuing, "But that is not what I want to talk about really. Hisana, Rukia's sister and my wife, asked me for one thing when she was dieing."

"And that was?"

"To make sure Rukia was happy," Byakuya said. "That was all... so I've done my best to do as she asked."

"So when she and I wanted to be together, you didn't say a word because of a promise to your wife? Nothing to do with trusting me then?"

"Well, the fact that I knew you well didn't hurt either," Byakuya said with a hint of mirth in his voice.

"Well that's good," Ichigo said, a smirk forming on his face.

Rukia reentered at that point, still carrying her son. Byakuya stood, "Well, I'd better be going now."

"Brother, you will come see your nephew often won't you?" Rukia asked.

"Of course I will. He is going to inherit my bussiness after all. I need to make sure you two raise him properly," Byakuya said a little sternly. But then he looked down at his little nephew and his face softened, "And after all, he is my nephew."

Byakuya stepped to the door, and Ichigo followed, "Well see you soon Byakuya."

"Indeed, I will see you soon, Ichigo." Byakuya turned and exited the house.

Ichigo went back into the living room. Rukia sat there smiling at their son. Ichigo leaned against the door-frame, and smiled. "Rukia."

The girl looked up, "Yeah Ichigo?"

"You happy?" he asked her.

She looked at him a little perplexed, then she smiled, "Yeah."

Ichigo nodded.

A whole twelve months, they had paid off.

* * *

_A Whole Twelve Months: Fin_

Auf Wiedersehen

BW


End file.
